Potty Beans

On a recent trip to my hairdresser Mandy, known around our house as The Great Mandini (a reference to both her skills with the shears as well as a little toddler marketing-ese to get him into the chair), I inquired as to how her daughter was acclimating to her new preschool. She informed me that it was going quite well, in fact, that the preschool was potty training Freda for them. Really. Of course (as we had yet to begin this little milestone despite our recent visits to open houses at the various recommended preschool options and their age and potty-trained-only requirements) I asked how they were accomplishing this feat. 'Potty beans', she beamed. Potty beans? Pink Jelly Belly's (Freda's fave) to be specific. So off I trot to Traders to obtain some of these 'magic' beans. To say that this has caught on like YouTube would be an understatement. In fact, Oliver is so enthusiastic about using his little potty for one of those brightly colored sweet rewards that Joe and I are concerned that he is going to damage his bladder trying to produce! So I started telling him the flavors to make things ever more interesting, adding another layer to the drama, thinking he could care less. Well...this morning, after a particularly earnest session in the loo, I handed him his jelly bean. He looked at it quite seriously, said 'mmmm...toasted marshmallow' and popped it into his mouth, huge grin. He doesn't even know what a toasted marshmallow (let alone a marshmallow) is! Last night I asked him which flavor he most liked. Reply? 'All of them.' Needless to say, no photo to accompany this entry...