If you thought the standards for my writing were suddenly elevated after yesterday's reflective post, get ready for the other end of the spectrum. We still have toddlers everywhere, y'all.
Here's the update: Mikayla earned no fewer than SIX stickers on her potty chart yesterday, and had a few simply stunning bladder-control highlights. I know you're barely keeping it together, wondering what kind of urinary feats my daughter achieved.
I'm just as excited to share, I promise.
Most of the day was your typical "Mikayla, do you need to go potty?" every 15 minutes or as often as it occurred to Momma to ask. Eventually I set the kitchen timer to help keep up with the prompts. Mikayla had an accident around lunchtime, probably because eating trumps putting your peepee in the right place. I can't say I'm judging her too harshly for that one. A girl has a right to love her PBJ.
After that, though, Mikayla wanted to wear big girl undies for her nap. And declined the customary pre-nap potty sit. Oh dear. But she insisted she would keep them dry. Oooook big girl, I thought, show me your stuff!
Well. An hour and a half later, I heard thumping sounds coming from upstairs. Someone was clearly out of bed, and I chose to believe Isaac was not capable of escaping the crib. In fact, the thumping sounded strangely like a potty lid. Yup, folks, my big girl got out of bed, USED her little potty on her own, and then dumped it into the big potty. When I found her, she was helping herself to a drink at the sink.
The second highlight was when we were sitting and watching Curious George between bath and bedtime. Now, I wouldn't expect a toddler to break from watching TV to go potty. We have had our share of accidents while watching TV because it is just so captivating.
And Mikayla has wet the couch on occasion, too.
This time, however, Mikayla turned to me smack in the middle of a monkey adventure and cried with her usual drama, "I have to go potty! I have to go potty!"And so we went. Fast. I sneaked a hand under her bottom to check, and the couch was dry! Folks, I can't imagine an Olympic gold medalist feeling a greater sense of victory. I know you think I'm exaggerating, but if you have ever potty trained another human being, you might recall what I'm talking about.
I think one secret to our success today was that we made a HUGE deal of her successes. I had just read a potty training blog post that suggested having a list of people to call when the potty is used, to share the excitement. So we were on the phone with three grandparents, one dadda, and texted a proud aunt through the course of the day. Mikayla was just bursting with excitement to share her news - let's face it, she was just thrilled to be on the phone so many times in one day. We kept with the sticker and cookie routine as rewards as well. (Mikayla refers to yogurt-covered-raisins as cookies. I am not going to correct her for a long, long time.)
Where was Isaac during all this? The simple answer is, "everywhere". That kid spent at least twenty minutes pushing the spray button on my (empty) Swiffer mop at one point. He also emptied his changing table of anything diaper-related. I love him, but he has some serious energy! I just can't wait til we're potty training him. I imagine we'll be mopping arcs of pee pee from the walls.
Somebody remind me that I predicted that, ok?
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