Raising Our Girls

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary

[justagirl4fun]

Four and a half year old Penelope, more commonly known as Penny, sat on the floor in front of Mary. "Sissy, you wanna do this?" she asked, holding up her new Frozen puzzle. Just that morning her father had taken her to the store to pick it out, her prize for not wetting the bed for a whole month straight. Penny was an active, energetic child who loved playing outside and had been tempted to pick a

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary smiled and nodded. She was envious of her sister most of the time. Her sister was younger than her, but could do much more than she could. Mary couldn't take a single step by herself nor could she properly support herself when sitting. She could stand if she used support, but that was about it. Though if she was laying down or sitting, she could kick and move her legs quote a bit.

[justagirl4fun]

Penny, whose name matched her bright, coppery curls, dumped the puzzle out between them. "You wanna do the outside pieces, an' then, when you get some together, I can start the inside?"

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary nodded a little before carefully picking up one of the corner pieces for the puzzle, focusing her energy into putting it into place with another without losing control of her hand, which happened more often than not.

[justagirl4fun]

(i was gonna be the mom since I'm the dad in the other one)

Diana set down the dishes she was drying and hurried to the living room. "Oh, did you have an accident, Mary?" she asked when she noticed the wet spot on Mary's pants.

[Shy-Diapers]

(Oh derp. I'm sorry. Thanks for reminding me.)

"Wet." Mary said, reaching for her mother to change her. She knew it was futile to try and unbuckle herself from any of her chairs at this point, after quite a few tries. Right now, her parents were unsure if she would ever be potty trained, but were st least a little hopeful to be able to control her bowels.

[justagirl4fun]

"That's okay. Accidents happen," Diana said brightly as she unbuckled Mary and picked her up. She carried the girl upstairs and laid her on the changing table where she removed the wet clothes, cleaned her up with a couple of wipes, and got her re-dressed. "There, good as new!" Diana kissed Mary's nose and tickled her belly before bringing her back downstairs. She set her on the couch, propped up with some pillows, so she could clean her special chair. Penny sighed as she waited for Mary to continue the puzzle, trying to be patient. She didn't want to be mean and finish it without her sister.

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary wanted to go back to playing with her sister, but was currently on the couch. With some effort, she wiggles herself off the couch and landed on her bottom. She was close enough that she could lean against the couch but still be able to reach the puzzle. She took the pieces and happily started putting them back together, finishing the border eventually.

[justagirl4fun]

Diana was in the other room getting paper towels and cleaning spray when she heard the thud. "Mary, are you okay?" she called out in a panic, but let out a sigh of relief when she found Mary happily playing with her sister. She scrubbed the seat and put down an old towel to keep Mary's pants from getting wet, then got Mary situated.

"Mama, how long til daddy gets home?" Penny asked as she snuck a peek out the window at the snow.

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary picked up the last puzzle piece and started to hand it to her sister, but she had a spasm and accidentally tossed it out of her hand. She frowned and looked down, feeling bad for always messing things up.

[justagirl4fun]

"Here, try it again," Penny encouraged as she handed the piece back to Mary. "You can do it. You did a really good job on the puzzle."

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary gave her sister a small smile and carefully, but still shakily put the last piece in. She beamed and clapped her hands as well as she could. She looked over at her sister to see what she wanted to play next. "Do now?"

[justagirl4fun]

"How about Magna Tiles?" Penny suggested. The pieces were easy to put together, and their father had built them a light box to play on which made them look really cool.

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary nodded and pushed the puzzle aside as best she could while her sister got the tiles, being unable to reach them from where she was sitting. When they were within her reach, she picked up a few of the squares and carefully put them together with one hand, not wanting to shake too much and have them collapse.

[justagirl4fun]

Diana smiled at her girls playing nicely together and went back to the kitchen to get dinner ready.

"Mary, you wanna build a castle together? Or a rocket ship?" Penny asked once she had the puzzle pieces all put back in the box.

[Shy-Diapers]

"Castle!" Mary said happily. She started attaching some of the square tiles around the light box. She tried to make them as consistent in color as possible, her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth as she concentrated.

[justagirl4fun]

Penny wasn't too concerned with sticking to any particular color pattern as she started building from the other side. She kept building until they were out of tiles, then ran to turn the lights off so the castle was illuminated only by the light box.

[Shy-Diapers]

Mary smiled and beamed when the castle was completed and glowing. She loved being able to play with her sister or anyone really and not feel like she was so different. She looked up at her standing sister. "Pretty!" She smiled.

[justagirl4fun]

"Mama! Come look!" Penny shouted. "Look what we did!"

Diana peeked into the living room to see the castle. "Beautiful! Good job, girls!"

Penny's face lit up when she heard John. "Daddy!" she shrieked as she ran through the house and barreled into him.

[Shy-Diapers]

John smiled and picked up Penny as she barreled towards him. He scooped her up and kissed her forehead. "How's my little girl?" He asked walking in the house with her.

[justagirl4fun]

"Me an' Mary put together my new puzzle an' we built a castle too!" Penny said excitedly. "Daddy, do you think we can go to the pond?" she asked. She had a new-to-her pair of skates, passed down from a family friend whose son had outgrown them, and had been waiting eagerly for the small pond on their property to freeze so she could try them out.

Diana had since returned to the kitchen and was making a salad. "Hello dear, how was work?" she asked as she leaned over to kiss her husband.

[Shy-Diapers]

"Well that sounds fun!" John said bouncing Penny on his hip. He pushed her coppery curls behind her ear as he kissed his wife. "The same as always. Nothing new. But I suppose no news is good news."

[justagirl4fun]

Diana looked at John. "Honey, can you get her? I need to get dinner out of the oven before it burns." She hated to interrupt Penny's time with her father, knowing the girl wasn't frequently the object of anyone's undivided attention due to Mary's needs, but sometimes it couldn't be helped.

[Shy-Diapers]

John nodded and set Penny down on the floor as he went to take Mary from her chair. He quickly unbuckled her and decided to put her on the couch as he sat down next to her while still making room for Penny.