Tales from the Potty

Today was the day we decided to hit potty training hardcore. By 'we', I mean 'me'. Eric was at work, Georgia wasn’t all that excited, and Eli didn’t care about anything but the new sticker machine he got for Easter.

I decided that I would try taking off Georgia's diaper for two hours each morning, taking her to the potty after each hour. After a few days of success, my book says you’re supposed to leave the diaper off longer until eventually, she’s out of diapers all day.

So, this morning, I took off her diaper when she got up and sat her on the potty. We sang songs and read books, but nothing. We had previously bought some Dora underpants, but I made the executive decision to let her run around naked from the waist down because I really didn’t want to clean pee and poop out of the new undies quite yet.

I told her we would try to go potty again in an hour. I watched her carefully after that to make sure there wasn’t pee running down her leg. Then, I started cleaning the kitchen (bad idea) and noticed she had gone in the office. This was about 10 minutes before our designated potty time. When I went to get her, she came running out with poop stuck to her leg.

Damn! She had gone in the office to go poop. And it looked like she huddled over the furnace vent to do it because there was poop all over the vent cover. Not. Cool. I really don’t want it to smell like poop in the office every time the heat comes on.

I took her to the potty and explained how we make pee and poop in the potty and plunked her down. After a couple of minutes, she got up, yelled, “I ALL DONE!” and ran off. I looked in the toilet and was shocked. SUCCESS!! She had peed. I made such a big deal. I danced around. I gave her a sticker. I gave a few WOO HOO’s! I was hoping that it might actually be that easy.

After another hour, I took her to the potty again, but nothing. Since it had been two hours, I put her pull-ups back on. It wasn’t long before she went into my bedroom and shut the door. She came back out a couple of minutes later and smelled like poop. Damn. I tried the potty again, but this time nothing. I said, “Don’t you have to go potty?” She smiled and said, “But not yet!”

That’s how she answers everything. “But not yet!” no matter what the question.

Anyway, I put the diaper back on her. We’ll try again tomorrow. I only hope if she poops without her diaper, she doesn’t squat over the vent again to do it.