Monday, January 18, 2010

The P Word

As in potty.

We've flirted several times with potty training. Back in September she started telling me ahead of time when she would poo. Since she was also in a phase where she hating having her diaper changed and would be physically fight me each time, I thought we'd try potty training. No dice. Too soon.

Later in the fall, we tried again. Unfortunately, the cat was also really sick and after a single afternoon of cleaning up 3 toddler puddles and 2 cat pukes in less than 3 hours, I called it quits.

In the last month Isa has asked several times to wear her big girl underpants so I figured why not try. I remained hopeful that she'd be one of those kiddos that trains in a day. (I'd read the book afterall!) As with all toddler training , I kept up a constant stream of reminders "When we wear big girl underpants, we ONLY pee in the potty" or "You need to keep your big girl underpants dry", etc. And intellectually, she got it. She could walk through the entire process with her potty and could tell me how it was supposed to go. But she didn't quite recognize how to get to the potty BEFORE going pee all over the floor. I'd get frustrated after multiple accidents and the diapers would go back on.

Soooo..... I decided that I needed a change of focus. I'm just not going to be able to handle a week straight of that many accidents without totally losing my patience. And so what if my child doesn't train in a day? She'll get there eventually, right? We put the diapers back on and I told Isa to let me know if/when she wants to use the potty. Over the last week she has started at least telling me when she needs to go pee, although she often refuses my suggestion to go sit on the potty. She taught several of her stuffed animals to use the potty which is quite funny to watch.

Now, admittedly, she has discovered that this can be used to her advantage. Twice after being put down for nap or bedtime I heard her calling me "Mama, need to use the potty!". While I know that it's partly a delay tatic, I want to encourage her, so I get her out of the crib and off we go. And you know what?!? Both times she did go pee in the potty! Woo-ha!!!

(Here's where I was going to insert a cute new pic but turns out I haven't loaded anything new since Christmas. Oops. So, here's a repeat of a cute shot from her first time wearing big girl underpants back in September.)

3 comments:

Jocelyn said...

We are flirting with it too but so not there!!!! Once again...they are too much alike:-)

Anonymous said...

such a scrumptious photo - I could put her on a cracker and eat her up.

as for the p-training, I am just avoiding it for now. If she turns 5 and hasn't figured it out, I'll worry then. :-)

Upstatemamma said...

Truthfully, very few kids potty train in a day. And, unfortunately, accidents are just pretty much a part of the deal. We are in the process of potty training my middle daughter now and she is doing well - although some days are not so great. :) Good luck!!