Blythe was currently fumbling around within her father's bedroom in the apartment they shared, tossing carefully aside various photos, photos albums, and other memorabilia her dad had managed to hang onto over the years. She was looking for something very particular, and she knew she had to find it as soon as possible!

"Come on," The teenage girl muttered to herself. "Where is it? Where is it? I know it's here somewhere!"

"What are you looking for exactly, Blythe?" Zoe Trent inquired. "You're making quite a mess here. Maybe I could help you look for… whatever it is you're trying to find? I do have a keen sense of smell, after all."

Blythe just shook her head from side to side. "No, Zoe, your nose wouldn't help," And she sighed. "I'm trying to find a very old video that my dad made long ago. He said he wanted to show it to my cousin Lilly when she comes by for a visit tomorrow. And I just know if I don't find it, he will, and he'll completely embarrass me in front of Lilly."

At that Zoe blushed, remembering the special bond she had with Blythe's toddler cousin, who was surprisingly mature for someone only about two and a half years old. "I remember how I thought Lilly would make fun of me after she found out about my… well… you know," She nervously and sheepishly looked around, her eyes darting from place to place. "But I turned out to be wrong, and she's the best playmate I could've asked for. Heck, she's been a fantastic playmate for some of my friends as well."

"I know, Zoe, but that's different," Blythe protested as she continued her frantic, furious search. "Lilly doesn't look up to you like she looks up to me. I really want it to stay that way, and that's going to be a lot harder if she sees me in that old video."

"Why is that, Blythe?" The black hat wearing pooch questioned as her blush subsided.

The teenage girl let out a sigh while running one free hand through her long, brown hair. "You'll understand once you see it, okay. All you need to know is that when my dad made it, I was no older than Lilly is now." Then she went back to searching, digging into piles of old memorabilia that now included a stack of old camcorder and VHS tapes, many of which had faded ink labels and looked like they hadn't been touched in years.

The search went on and on for what felt like minutes even though it was probably only seconds. At last, however, Blythe's bluish-green eyes fell upon something that immediately attracted her attention. There it was, way down at the bottom of the pile of tapes. Carefully (so as not to make a big mess to have to clean up later), she reached down and grasped the VHS tape with one hand, pulling it free. The tape cover was a little bit dusty, and the ink was not only faded but a little bit smeared. "Aha! Here we go! I knew Dad wasn't kidding when he said he still had it."

Zoe squinted, trying to make out the words on the tape's cover. The dust tickled at her nostrils and made her twitch.

The teenage girl carefully and gracefully dusted off the tape's cover and held it aloft, reading very slowly and very softly the words "Blythe's Potty Time Story" in crudely scribbled letters. Just holding it and speaking the words made her blush bright red with shame and embarrassment.

Realization hit Zoe Trent almost immediately. "Oh." Despite being a dog and despite the fact that her owners did not have children, her time with Lilly had caused her to pick up on a few words and phrases here and there about early child development. Among them was what humans taught their little ones when they reached a certain age about the way to tend to one's bodily needs without needing to wear diapers. It would seem that the tape, if the label was anything to go, was all about Blythe's experience with that particular development.

"Yeah. Bet you understand now why I have to make sure my dad doesn't show this to Lilly. I will never live it down," Blythe said with a frown. "I love my dad, but he really didn't have to hold onto everything from when I was just a baby. It's ridiculous."

However, there was one particular feeling that was now circulating through the dog's mind when it came to the tape: Curiosity. She had only Blythe's word to go on for how embarrassing the tape was. And since she had only a little bit of experience with Lilly undergoing the same thing Blythe had gone through, Zoe had to admit the feeling would not leave her be. It was like a bone that was just out of reach no matter how hard she tried to grab it. So she reluctantly asked. "Um, Blythe…?"

"What is it, Zoe?" The teenage girl with brown locks asked, suspecting nothing.

"Um, could I maybe…" Zoe swallowed hard and tried not to look ashamed. "See it… with you? J-just so I can see for myself how embarrassing it really is. I-I promise I won't say a word to any of our friends or to Lilly. It'll just be our little secret."

For a moment, Blythe was silent, hesitant even. Then she sighed anew and groaned while biting her lip. "Oh, alright. But if I find out you told any of the other pets or Lilly, you can forget about me looking after you the next time your owners go out of town. Do you understand?"

Zoe firmly nodded. "Yes, Blythe," Then she eagerly wagged her tail and started running off. "Now come on! I really wanna see it! How do we watch it?"

Blythe carefully held onto the VHS tape as she stepped over the piles she had made in her father's bedroom. "If I'm right, he still has an old TV set that can play these tapes," She soon walked across the room to a well worn television sitting on a small desk next to an old computer. Beneath the television was a large, black object with a slot that fit the VHS tape perfectly. Blythe pressed a button to turn on the TV, switched to another screen that was blank, then delicately popped the old tape into the slot.

There was silence as the tape settled into the slot, and the old TV made a lot of strange noises. Blythe and Zoe watched with anxiousness and concern.

At last, however, the blank screen disappeared. A faint crackle of static could be heard as an image popped up on the screen with white squares in the corner. On the bottom right corner was the word "REC" with a white circle next to it. In the top left was a symbol that looked like a battery, but colored white and with a percentage on it.

Briefly, a hastily scribbled and drawn title card on a piece of paper was placed in front of the screen with the words "Blythe's Potty Time" written on it, followed by the sound of giggles. It faded just as quickly as it had been presented. In its place was a much younger looking Blythe Baxter who couldn't be much older than her cousin Lilly was now. Her brown hair was much shorter and she looked just a tad bit chubbier, whilst also looking overall much shorter in stature compared to her height in the present day.

Zoe had to resist the urge to let out a gasp when she saw this younger Blythe. "Is that…" She began to ask.

"-Yes," Blythe quickly replied to Zoe. "That's what I looked like when I was Lilly's age." Then she and Zoe Trent settled in to watch the video.

After a bit of shaking and static, the screen was centered and held straight as the familiar voice of Blythe's father, Roger Baxter, could be heard chatting with someone else. "It's on? It's recording? O-oh!" He made an audible coughing sound while muttering about the need to "erase" that chatter later. Then he started to speak in an exaggerated tone of voice. "This is the story of a little girl named Blythe Baxter," The screen slowly zoomed towards the toddler Blythe as her dad instructed. "Say hi, Blythe."

"Hi." Blythe managed to force out, speaking in something of a lisp.

Zoe couldn't help but snicker faintly in spite of herself.

The scene changed to show the toddler girl running around in a building much different from the apartment she and her father now lived in. And as it did, Roger's voice could be heard providing a somewhat clumsy narration. "Like all little girls, Blythe has the following features: A head, hair, eyes for seeing, a nose for smelling, a mouth for speaking and smiling, a belly, arms and hands for grabbing things, legs and toes for balancing, walking, and running, and a butt for sitting." Briefly, the camera panned around little Blythe to reveal and draw attention to the various features mentioned, all the while she was wearing a white-print flower t-shirt and a visible white undergarment.

Drawing attention to the white undergarment, Roger's voice went on narrating. "And that butt also has a little hole for making pee-pee and poo-poo, just like everybody else. Since Blythe was born, she kept going pee-pee and poo-poo into her diapers, like all babies do. And I, her daddy."

"Along with her mommy, don't forget me." A sweet sounding female voice called out even as the person it came from did not show their face.

"Yes, Betty. I was just getting to that, honey," Roger hurriedly corrected with a nervous laugh and then continued. "A-anyway, we, her dady and her mommy kept changing her."

The scene then changed to Roger doing exactly that to Blythe, placing her down on a somewhat large table, taking off her t-shirt and then removing her used diaper before wiping and powdering her, then strapping her up into a clean diaper. Meanwhile, the old diaper was balled up and tossed into a waiting diaper pail.

"And that was the way it was," Roger narrated again. "Until one day…"

Suddenly, the scene changed to little Blythe sitting on the floor in front of a very large and colorful box that easily towered over her. Depicted on the box was a small, plastic bowl-like object that showed a little girl sitting on it.

Roger started narrating once again. "Blythe's grandmother got her a great big present! The biggest present she had ever seen!" He then broke out of his assigned role to whisper to Blythe. "Make sure to say 'Thank you, Grandma Baxter', Blythe."

"Thank you, Grandma Baxter!" Little Blythe smiled and waved.

Satisfied with his toddler daughter's response, the father went on to say. "But what was it? Blythe had no idea," And he began listing off a series of ridiculous ideas even though he knew exactly what was inside of the box and what it was for. "Was it a hat? No, it wasn't a hat. Was it a flower pot? No, it wasn't a flower pot. Was it a milk bowl for a cat? No, it wasn't a milk bowl. Do you know what it was?"

"What is it, Daddy?" The toddler Blythe asked with a mix of curiosity and amusement. Whatever it was that was inside the box clearly intrigued her.

"It was a potty!" Roger's voice could be heard excitedly saying, before the scene cut to the box being opened up and the little potty inside of it being placed onto the tiled floor within the bathroom. "It was for Blythe to make pee-pees and poo-poos without needing a diaper anymore!" And in the background, it was possible to hear the sounds of excited clapping.

Little Blythe, however, eyed the potty with hesitation. Sure, it was new and different, but knowing what it was for and what it meant made her uncertain and uneasy. Did using this potty mean she would no longer be allowed to wear diapers even though she quite liked wearing them and had no problems with using them?

It seemed that was what the toddler girl's mother and father both wanted, because with a click the scene changed to show Blythe now stripped of her diaper and seated upon the potty. Meanwhile, Roger's voice was continuing to excitedly narrate. "Blythe couldn't wait to try out her new potty, and neither could we, her mother and father. So we helped her take off her diaper and get seated on the potty. Then Blythe sat there, and sat there, and sat there, and sat there." Indeed, that was what the little girl did.

But the very next scene showed Blythe standing up, exposing her bare bottom, all the while the screen was hurriedly moving away from her and towards the ceiling as her father's voice was saying. "Eventually, however, Blythe decided she was done and stood up. Nothing had come out. No pee-pee or poo-poo. So she wandered away to go play."

Before the next scene started, it was possible to hear some whispering and chattering going on behind the camera. Little Blythe Baxter could be heard asking. "Are you sure it's okay for me to do this, Mommy and Daddy?"

"Just this once for the sake of your daddy's story," The voice of Betty could be heard saying in reply. "Now go ahead, do it right in the place we set up for you."

Little Blythe giggled. "Okay, Mommy!" She sounded all too eager to do what her parents were asking her to do. From the sound of it, it was something she wouldn't normally be allowed to do.

"What are they talking about, Blythe?" Zoe asked as she remained transfixed on the "story" playing out on the tape.

The present day Blythe whispered in a hushed tone. "Just watch, Zoe."

Meanwhile, it seemed that the toddler Blythe in the recording had managed to do the normally not allowed thing her parents had asked her to do. "Okay, I'm done." She was still giggling and laughing, clearly amused by what she'd been allowed to do.

The screen then turned back to the bathroom to reveal a still empty potty in the same place it had been left in earlier. But right next to the potty, conveniently atop a pile of old newspapers was what Blythe had been told to do in the potty. And Roger was narrating. "Later, Blythe did go pee-pee and poo-poo, but not exactly in the potty."

"Hehe, oopsie!" The toddler Blythe chuckled, not sounding ashamed in the least about her little "accident".

Zoe couldn't help but laugh too, clearly amused by the admittedly crude humor on display. She did so despite the visible blush on the teenaged Blythe's face.

After that, the screen changed, now showing little Blythe cleaned up (and her "accident" presumably cleaned up as well) and running around with a diaper on again rather than nothing on her rear like there had been before. And her dad's voice was continuing to narrate. "From then on, Blythe didn't bother to use her potty. She kept going pee-pee and poo-poo into her diapers, and we, her daddy and mommy kept changing her."

Indeed, that was shown over and over again as scenes flashed by, each showing Blythe being changed by one of her parents. Normally it was her father, but sometimes the woman who looked a lot like Blythe but had red hair styled loose could be seen changing Blythe instead.

But suddenly, the scene changed to show the toddler brown-haired girl running to the bathroom without a diaper, shouting over and over. "Gotta go! Gotta go!" It wasn't long before she had managed to seat herself upon her potty. And as she did so, her dad's voice was explaining. "Until one day, Blythe had a feeling that poo-poo was ready to come out. So she went to her potty and sat down on it. And she sat there, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. At last, finally, she stood up. And guess what she saw!"

Zooming in on the potty, it was revealed that Blythe had managed to use it successfully. And Roger's voice was excitedly narrating! "She saw her pee-pee and her poo-poo right inside the potty, right where it was supposed to be! Blythe was so excited and proud of what she'd done! And when we, her mommy and daddy saw that she had gone pee-pee and poo-poo in her potty, we were very proud of her too!"

The next scene depicted the toddler girl being showered with praise, including cries of "Well done!" and "That's the way to do it!", as well as pats on her little head to reassure her that she had done a good thing. Then it changed as Roger's voice narrated. "After that, we helped Blythe clean herself up," The scene continued as it showed the two adults carefully carrying the filled up potty with them, and the narration went on. "Then we took her potty and emptied it into the toilet." The potty was carefully placed in front of the great, white porcelain device as its lid was raised up, before its contents were poured into the toilet bowl.

Zoe watched with interest despite knowing what was coming next.

As the scene went on and the potty (now empty) was carefully set back down, Roger's narration explained. "And then we flushed the toilet and sent it all away." Then, with little Blythe standing before the toilet bowl and the screen clearly focused on the toilet bowl below, Roger could be seen not so subtly reaching out a hand to grasp the silver handle. He pressed it down with a click, and with a loud noise the toilet flushed, its contents rapidly being swept up by the spinning waters! Then they all disappeared down the drain.

And as the contents disappeared, Blythe waved a little hand and babbled. "Bye bye pee-pee! Bye bye poo-poo!"

Another scene change showed Blythe doing much the same thing she had done before, with Roger continuing to narrate. "And from that day forward, whenever Blythe feels that pee-pee or poo-poo is ready to come out, she doesn't go in a diaper. She goes and sits on her potty, and does her pee-pee and poo-poo there. Then she comes to get us, her mommy and daddy. And we help her clean up, empty her potty into the toilet, and then flush the toilet. Because of that, Blythe is now a big girl," The tone of the narration took on a triumphant tone. "She doesn't need to wear diapers anymore! And we, her mommy and daddy are very proud of her!"

Then, at last, a small white sheet was held up with the words "The End" written on it in the same clumsy, hastily drawn and scribbled fashion as the title card. It lingered on that for a bit as little Blythe's giggles could be heard in the background. Then, with a click, everything went black. And just like that, the tape stopped.

Blythe quickly got up and pressed a button on the black box under the old television set to make the tape rewind. Meanwhile, Zoe was battling a complex sea of emotions: Curiosity, amusement, enjoyment, but most of all confusion. "I don't get it, Blythe." She said in no uncertain terms.

"What don't you get, Zoe?" The teenage girl questioned while waiting for the VHS tape to stop rewinding. "You saw how embarrassing that was for me, right?"

Zoe nodded quite slowly. "Well, yes. But I'm also confused. Didn't you say that you don't like being on camera? That you specifically didn't like it even when you were a little girl?"

Blythe sighed. "Yes, Zoe. That was true even back then. But both my dad and my mom were able to get me to overcome it, at least for a little while."

The black hat wearing dog was not satisfied with the response. "Really? With what?"

Fighting back another raging blush, Blythe explained. "You saw it for yourself, didn't you? How was I allowed to run around with nothing at all on? Not even a diaper?"

At that the realization struck Zoe almost at once, and as she did she had to put her paws to her mouth to keep from bursting into unstoppable laughter. "Oh…"

"Yeah. It was stupid and childish, but back then it worked. I loved the freedom and the feeling of being naked!" The teenage girl admitted. "Obviously, I couldn't do it a lot, people would've taken notice. But especially when it came to potty training, things like that helped me to overcome my stage fright and camera shyness."

"But why did your dad make tapes like that?" Zoe Trent questioned, still puzzled about that particular detail.

An unhappy sigh escaped Blythe Baxter's lips as she recalled. "Well, since he was a pilot even back then, he wasn't always around. Mom usually had to take care of me and raise me during the months when he was busy. So he made tapes like that whenever he had time off of work, so that he could be sure he wasn't missing out on anything important," Then in a somewhat more somber tone she added. "And after my mom passed away when I was not much older than I was on that tape, I think they helped him remember all the times he shared with her. So that's why he couldn't throw them out or erase them."

"And he's had them for all of this time even though I seem to understand that those… tapes aren't being made anymore, and no technology today can play them?" Zoe inquired.

Blythe hesitantly and reluctantly nodded yet again. "Yes, Zoe," And as she finished speaking, she heard the sound indicating that the tape had stopped rewinding. She walked forward, pressed another button, and the tape was slowly ejected right into her hands. "It's not like I plan on destroying it or anything. I just need to keep it hidden somewhere safe until after Lilly's visit."

Zoe, however, flashed a warm smile. "Oh, but Blythe, I don't see why you think Lilly will think any less of you if she sees you on that tape. If anything, I think she'll be delighted to know that you were just like her. I'm sure she's had her struggles with… potty training, I believe you call it."

"Yes. And, you really think so, Zoe?" Blythe questioned with skepticism. "I mean, she's never really seen me as… well, not like this."

The dog smiled again and wagged her tail in delight. "Blythe, if she didn't judge me or think less of me after she found out about how I… you know what," She briefly glanced over her shoulder before looking back. "Then I'm sure she'll still look up to you after all's said and done. After all, that 'tape' makes it clear that you eventually learned how to use the potty just like your parents, and just like Lilly is learning now."

Sighing and looking at the tape in her hands, Blythe was silent for a moment or two, deep in thought. Then, looking down at Zoe, something of a smile spread across her face. "You know, Zoe… you're right. I'm really making too much of a big deal out of this. Besides, if it helps motivate Lilly to keep doing a good job on her potty training, then any embarrassment I have to endure is worth it. I'll still be me when all's said and done." And so she carefully returned the tape to the pile from which she had discovered it. Now she just had to go about putting everything in the bedroom back to the way it had been before her search.