Pooping on the Potty; Peeing in the Shower. Business as Usual

At a writing conference a few months ago, I had lunch with my dear friend Julie whom I hadn't seen in far too long. When we sat down, she turned to me and asked,

            So, what’s making you happy lately?

What an awesome question! Certainly not your typical conversation opener. Generally you hear (or I do anyway) things like:  How's it going? What'cha been up to? What's' up? and other questions that usually contain lots of contractions and allow for kvetching and complaining as well as the occasional announcement of good news.
But, what’s making you happy lately is masterful. It only allows for positive talk. When Julie asked me this question I was caught off guard because we're programmed into hearing and saying specific things in polite conversations. When I recovered from the jarring uniqueness of her greeting and realized I couldn't (or just yet) kibitz about being tired, not getting to the gym enough, peri-menopause, etc, I was surprised at how much I came up with.  Julie's what’s making you happy lately has certainly made an impact on me since our conversation was almost two months ago, and I am still thinking of things I could have told her such as

1. Cricket now poops on the potty and she did it all by herself without any prompting. If you are a mom of a preschooler you know why I’ve led with this one. I’m proud that I didn’t use stickers, treats, charts or bribery to get her to do her business in the proper place, and I’m proud of her for knowing when she was ready and going for it. 

2. My Dymo Label Writer works again, and I fixed it myself.

3. I am anxiety-free. This is nothing short of a miracle, thank you God. Each spring, for the past ten years, I've been besieged with anxiety with twinges of depression, and I always dreaded the prospect of sliding back into a full-scale depression and back on emotion-numbing medication. But no anxiety this year, and that's giving me a lot of happiness.

4.  I've completed one essay on my list of Parenting Essays I Will Someday Finish and Submit to Widely-Read Magazines and it will be published on Errant Parent on July 18.

5.  My daughter is incredible and never ceases to bring me joy. Here follows a My Daughter is Completely Awesome anecdote with data to prove it: We recently had our windows professionally washed. Brian, the owner of the company - a tall, broad-shouldered grandfather with an Irish accent – did the job himself with one other helper. We have about 3 miles of windows in our house so they were there for almost two hours. Well, Cricket developed an instant love of Brian whom she called her best buddy and followed him around the house and into every room, telling him stories of dad getting diarrhea in India and how she is such a big girl now because she pees in the shower. So many things wrong with that last tidbit, the least of which is that she apparently let loose when I was giving her a shower earlier that day. At one point she changed into neon green pajama bottom shorts because Brian, her best buddy, was wearing shorts. And apparently she had invited him for a sleepover and his dog Rusty is coming, too. When he was getting ready to leave Cricket wriggled out of my arms saying, "I want to hug him." And when she did, that big old hunk of a guy teared-up and hugged her back.

So, what's been making you happy lately?