A Big "First"

Natalie had a big "milestone" today (for some reason, I think it is funny to use the word "milestone" now that she is no longer really a baby. I never think of toddlers reaching milestones, although they do).
Natalie has been using the potty for quite a few months now and wears panties most of the time that she is awake. Just in the past couple of weeks, she has started to go to the potty completely by herself. She may be playing in her kitchen and wander off and the next thing you know she is flushing the toilet. She runs back to the bathroom and pulls down her panties and takes care of business when it comes to "tee-tee".
But "poo-poo" on the potty is a completely different story. I would say she has gone "poo-poo" on the potty less than ten times in the past six months. We had a period of weeks when we really pushed the issue and it seemed to back fire. She became constipated and would hold her poop until she was in a diaper (a swim diaper or at nap or bedtime) and even had a few accidents in her panties. She would scream and cry and fight us whenever we tried coaxing her to poop on the potty (when it was very obvious that she did need to go!). We tried all sorts of rewards and prizes but that didn't seem to faze her. I recently taught her to ask for a diaper when she knew she needed to poop and that has been working well for us.
So, imagine the surprise when she went poo-poo on the potty ALL BY HERSELF today. I was at work and Ryan was home with Natalie. She was watching a cartoon and Ryan noticed that she took her panties off and was holding herself (what all kids do when they need to go, lol) so he asked her and she said "no" due to her fascination with the TV. He told her he would pause the cartoon and she went running off towards the bathroom. Ryan followed her but when she got there she said, "No Dada, I shut door" and closed him out. He decided to give her some space and the next thing he knew she was hollering at him that she went poo-poo.
I know this may not be nearly as exciting for anyone as it is for us today but we're very thrilled and proud of her (especially considering how adamantly she refused to even attmept this as recently as last week). Our little girl is growing up so fast and right before our eyes!