Companionable concentration

This is Ivy with 'poppy dolly'-  I don't think she's been introduced on blip yet since she arrived whilst I was on a break.  I wanted to get Ivy a doll for her to have the opportunity to practice/ copy nurturing behavior before and after her sisters arrived. Did quite alot of reading about which dolls were best for this 'empathy' approach and in the end went for a Ruben's barn doll. Poppy dolly really is quite lovely, adults keep subconsciously picking her up and cuddling her and Ivy is very attached. She particularly likes changing her nappy (Poppy dolly is of course cloth bummed). We named Poppy Dolly 'Poppy' as it was a name I liked for one of the twins that Euan vetoed (along with Clover and Briar, I seem to like 'weed' names... ), but it's Ivy who has named her 'poppy dolly' which I like alot more. Poppy Dolly wears the outfit that originally earned Ivy the nickname Ivysaurus. I don't think we could have beared to pass it down to her sisters, so this is the perfect solution. I'm still a sucker for dressing Ivy like a dinasaur, her new scaley print pjamas from Granny Grant and Pops that she's wearing here are particular favourites. 

A very odd thing happened today- Ivy spontaneously successfully started toilet training. I was having a shower and she insisted on joining me so was naked afterwards. I asked her if she was going to put her nappy back on and she said 'no', so I said she could only not wear a nappy if she did a pee in the toilet- and she agreed. Not only did she pee, she did a poo too (I got so excited I forgot the 'only contact me if your in labour since my phone is now on in class' rule and sent Euan a text message)- I had to actively resist the urge to take a photo of her on the loo for today's blip. Then she said 'done' 'wipe' and got herself a piece of toilet roll and wiped, climbed down said 'flush' and then 'wash hands'. We've not taught her any of that, she's learned purely by watching us. I've always been against the idea of getting her a potty, because adults don't sit on potties and I think it's better for her to learn from our example- i'm rather pleased that I seem to have been right (altough not as pleased as I was that I had one less dirty nappy to scrape)