My oh my, do I have some good news?! First, I'll start with the picture. When Mia was here we went to Target and came home with all kinds of goodies from the princess aisle. One was a $20 box of princess costumes (Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella skirts and tops with some jewelry and head gear). I got her the $20 box of princess dress-up shoes. She LOVES them all, and it's been nice to have some variety even though it's cheapo stuff. I thought we'd wait to get a really nice costume when Mary Ella decides who her most favorite princess is. Changes all the time...currently it is Cinderella because I found my old Cinderella story book and ME loves it so much we've only read it a bazillion times the past two days. Anyway, this whole potty training thing has allowed her to assert her independence even more, and one of her new things is trying to dress herself. So the dress up clothes are going to provide hours of fun and entertainment. What is not so fun is her new favorite phrase, "I do it all by self!" I bet you can guess what that means. Yes, my 2 two year old no longer needs my help, say at the pool when she is jumping in the deep water. Um, no dear, you cannot do it "by self." She has been seriously frustrated at times over the last few days and will just scream it at me even if it has nothing to do with why she is mad. Let's just say emotions have been running high at our house, and this Mama was wearing down. How is the potty training going? Well, Dada didn't do so well over the weekend, surprised? So, I thought Monday would be awful and like starting from scratch. But she only had one pee accident, BUT she pooped in the tub which she hasn't done since she was a BABY! I guess she thought I wouldn't notice. Yesterday she only had one pee accident and was getting really good at making it to the potty in plenty of time. We could be in any room in the house, and she would tell me she needed to go. I'd take off her panties, and she would run in and sit on the potty without me following or helping her. I was feeling so proud! But the poop thing hadn't happened, and I knew she had to go. Like early in the day had to go, and tried, but wouldn't- not with books, with Mickey Mouse, on the big potty, on the little potty, in the box- would NOT go. I did not know how we were going to handle the situation, but to my surprise yesterday evening I was in my bathroom and she said she had to go. I took her panties off, and she went in the living room to sit on her potty. Soon I heard her yelling, "I did it! I did it!" and she ran in to my bathroom so excited! I totally expected it to just be pee, but it wasn't! I couldn't believe it...I wasn't even right there coaching her! Brad had been sitting there on the couch, and he said she jumped up, took off running, but then looked back to check it out. Ha! So that is good new #1! I was so happy! But honestly at the end of the day yesterday, all I could think was now what? She hasn't been out of the house in a week except to go down to the pool. She hasn't even put on a cute outfit in days. So, she can pee and poop in her pink princess potty in our living room? What now? How do I get her to go in the big potty because when I've tried here she has freaked out? When can I move the pink princess potty out of our living room and into her bathroom and stop cleaning up pee off the hardwood? And if we go somewhere she will have to wear a pull up and then she'll just go in it and all our hard work will be wasted? And will we ever be able to leave the house again? I know it sounds dramatic, but I've never done this before and the whole thing has been stressing us out! But we had to have groceries, and I was pleased enough with the progress so far. So today I decided to bite the bullet and go to Kroger. I put her in a pull up and told her to tell me when she needed to pee pee, and we would go to the potty. I totally didn't expect her to tell me or be able to go even if she did. So, I just hoped we could get in and out of there and back home before she had to go. Well....about halfway through my shopping she said, "I need to poo potty." (That is what she always calls it). So, I drive the cart to the bathroom and think nothing will happen, but atleast I could use a bathroom break. So, I sit my baby girl up on the big nasty public toilet (this is another thing that has been stressing me out, thank goodness for those paper seat covers!) and wait. She doesn't seem too scared, but all of a sudden the toilet automatic flushes and she nervously says, "I did it" and jumps off the potty (she did not do it). Scared her to death! And I can see why because it was one powerful flush! Gross! Anyway, we washed our hands and got back to shopping. Almost to the end, she tells me again that she needs to poo potty. I say, "I know baby. Do you want to try to use the big potty again?" She said no, and I almost didn't make her try. But I could tell that she needed to badly and really didn't want to do it in her pull up. So we head back to the bathroom, and I still don't think it will happen. She is saying things like, "pink potty" and "no" and "I wanna go home." By the time we get in the bathroom I am thinking we are both going to have a meltdown, but I point to the first potty and say, "We won't use that scary potty, we'll use a different one." Totally didn't think that would work and really hoped they weren't all premature flushers. So, I sat her on another potty with some protest, waited, and she really went! Good news #2! She did it! We did it! So excited! I totally let her open her Rapunzel fruit snacks for a treat before we ever payed for them! Maybe we will make it back to the real world after all! It is really sad that I just wrote a whole post about pooping in the potty and using a public restroom, but this is our life right now. And BIG things are happening! And I want to remember all of it.
P.P.S. We finished day 6 of potty training with no accidents, and she went 2 times in the potty at church. We've got this!
