Hana is almost completely toilet trained. We do keep her in diapers at night since she still seems to wet them from time to time, but any other time, she's completely out of it and in fact, even if we put her in one (sometimes we go out and we're not sure we'd be able to find a decent toilet where we're going) she'd insist on going in a toilet and not in her diapers.
But she has this knack for finding the most inappropriate times to ask for the bathroom. She hasn't quite grasped the concept of asking to go before the urge is too strong, and so whenever she does ask, there's a mad dash to the toilet, and god forbid if there's a line T_T. Times when she usually asks to go are: when we're in line to pay for something, when one of us is away running some other errand and can't be around to take care of the stuff we have, you get the picture.
She once asked to go right as I was about to pray in surau, after I had taken my ablution. And since we happened to be in a badly planned mall, the bathrooms were on the other side of the suraus. So, seven month pregnant me had to rush to the other end of the mall with her where we encountered this family of women who insisted on blocking every single doorway we had to go through, for some reason, and I finally had to just push my way through (hey, better that than having my daughter pee all over your long jubahs, aunties) and we barely made it on to the toilet.
Yesterday was another funny incident. My mom had just dropped Hana off from school, and we usually spend a few minutes chatting before I take her upstairs. But that day, Hana was particularly antsy and practically shoo-ed her grandma away, saying that she wanted to go home right then and there. So we said our goodbyes and I took her into the lift lobby and pressed on the button. She looked up at me with the most desperate look on her face and started dancing in a very very familiar way and I felt the dread as I asked her if she needed to pee. She nodded urgently.
Anyone who's been to our apartments would know that the lifts are some of the most unreliable and slow lifts I've ever encountered. And as the lift skipped our floor and went down to the lower basement, I hoped and hoped in my heart that it was just dropping someone off, not picking someone up. And even if it were, that the person would be going to a higher floor so that we would reach our floor first. No such luck on both wishes. There was a guy in the lift and he was going to the 2nd floor. We were going up to the 4th.By now, Hana was dancing around, whimpering, starring up at me in despair and I asked her to hold it in for a few more minutes, convinced that she wouldn't be able to and that the three of us would have our soles drenched in yellow liquid in just a few seconds.By now I was silently calculating my moves. Take her to the bathroom if she peed on the floor, change her, then take her back out and go down to the lobby to find a cleaner to clean up the mess in the lifts.
Second floor, guy gets out and I slam on the close button, and we got to the fourth floor with no accidents yet! We both jump out of the lifts and I scream "Run!" to her and we're both making a mad scramble for the doors. I leave her behind to care for herself (it's only a few steps from the lifts to my door) so that I can unlock the front door and we squeeze in. I told her to forget taking off her shoes and we both ran and ran to the guest bathroom where I just manage to yank her undies down and her shoes and socks off and lift her to the toilet. We made it!
Now that both of us were safe, we started giggling our asses off because it was just too funny. She said "Apalah mama ni!"
After everything was done and dry, I realised that I was panting crazily, and that I had basically forgotten about my almost 8-month old pregnant tummy when I sprinted for the bathroom with her.
Little sweetheart notices how out of breath I am and asks me why and I told her I was tired from running - and guess what? I got a free lecture from my 3-yo, on how I shouldn't be running while I'm pregnant and that I needed to take better care of myself and the baby. Imagine that!
