God Bless "Shrek"

Back at Christmas when I was making my mad dash through O'Hare, hoping and praying to catch the flight home, the adults in my family were hoping and praying for something else: for my 3-year-old niece to discover the motivation to pursue potty-training with a passion.

I had hoped a cheerfully wrapped watercolor paint book (with brush!) might do the trick. Before I left for Colorado, I explained in great detail to my niece just what exciting things were waiting underneath the Strawberry Shortcake wrapping paper for little girls who worked hard at becoming big girls while Aunt Rachel was away. Sometime during the trip, I tried to follow-up with a phone call. But alas, when home again, Rudolph, Santa and the elves were still neatly tucked away, and the little girl who never met wrapping paper she didn't instantly want to tear off -- no matter whether the present was hers or not -- seemed to care less that a Christmas gift remained unopened. I think it was late January or early February before I finally got a call from my niece babbling that she'd made enough progress to open it.

So, my sister and brother-in-law took it to the next level. If Strawberry Shortcake wrapping paper wasn't going to do the trick, perhaps Strawberry Shortcake herself would. This time, the present was unwrapped, and dolly was left behind her plastic-window prison, sitting pretty. Well, let's just say the you-can't-play-with-her-until... experiment didn't play so well. (Sigh.) This from a girl who LOVES Strawberry Shortcake and is getting rather adept at following up every "Why?" question with a "But why can't I?" protest at the explanation. Dolly was still in the box until previews for "Shrek the Third" started appearing on television screens near my niece. Don't ask me how, but apparently her deep-seated adoration of Nemo has transferred to cinema's favorite ogre-with-a-brogue. This, after the "Finding Nemo" DVD played so many times on the portable player strapped inside the minivan, it put the machine permanently out of commission.

Apparently, the great big green ogre was able to motivate her to boldly go where she had not gone before -- I mean, well, you get the idea -- because all my sister and her husband had to do was calmly explain that while they would like to take her, and realized she probably really wanted to see the movie, only big girls and boys get to go to the movie theater with their parents. Well, faster than Puss-in-Boots can morph from sword-flashing master to wide-eyed purr-meister, she was on board with that plan. I am told she who formerly could care less was nearly inconsolable on Day 3 or 4 when she tried to get to the bathroom in time but had an accident. Apparently, too many days without "Shrek" had already gone by. As such, within one week, she was good to go -- to the movies, that is. And Strawberry Shortcake came out of her box as an added bonus.

The more I think about the whole thing, the more amused I am that the key to potty-training, at least for her, was all about the movies. Now there's a girl after my own heart! So God bless Shrek and the Saturday afternoon special. It's nice to know that movies can still have the meaning to change somebody's life.