How proud?

Well-done's and you're-such-a-big-girl's I use very frequently, but my I'm-so-proud-of-you's are used very sparingly in our house.

On the weekend I had a very good reason to use the P word. After a week of ever more frequent toilet accidents, things escalated last Friday night and I had to re-assess my reactions and think about strategies to put in place. But Ella insisted that she could avoid accidents without the help of the kitchen timer to remind her of when to go. I gave her one day to prove it to me before we got out the timer again to give her a bit of a hand.

She had no accidents the next day. When I told her I was so proud of her, she actually blushed, said 'thankyou' in an almost honoured tone and then asked: "How proud are you, mum?".

So of course I spread my arms as wide as I could to indicate my level of pride. But obviously, my arms aren't really long enough anyway.