who knew it started so early

Living in Southern Illinois has definately had its perks. Since approximately 99.927% of my immediate and extended family live in the area, playdates are ALWAYS available. Conveniently, my oldest brother and his wife were polite enough to give birth to a little girl just 6 weeks before Julia was born. This works out just famously now that they are old enough to really enjoy playing together. We've been able to have this cousin (Jenna) over the last couple of days. They have LOVED this time. But there is a downside to every up, I guess. You see, Jenna and Julia are relative novices in the appropriately timed use of toilets. So, when they get so excited playing, accidents happen. Having babysat more than one child in training during my younger years, I knew exactly how to deal with this. I set a kitchen timer. Every 30 mintues, it rings, we sing POTTY TIME, and off they both go. This method is thanks to Cynthia Welch who was potty-training Chelsea when I was her babysitter. (We still have the training potty so one uses the big potty while the other uses the 'little' potty). Now, they are adamant about going together and if that wasn't witness enough of their gender-specific behavior, once they go, I can't get them out of the bathroom! Seriously, 20 minutes just to 'peedle.' It's insane. Why do women (at any age) insist on accompanying one another to the bathroom? (As adults, this seems only to happen when 1. stalls are present, and 2. when in a public setting). And why on earth would we want to spend 20 minutes in there? (Again in adulthood, this time is more often spent checking hair, running eyeliner, and random blemishes). And who knew this could start at age 2?!