get this potty started

I'm trying to decide what is my favorite part of potty training. Of course I love cleaning the evidence of bodily functions off various surfaces, especially carpet. The piles of laundry - more of you to love! Sometimes the two are even combined: hearing "I peed! [on the carpet]" while I am busy hanging the laundry on the line (or trying to do any project other than Pee Watch, 24/7).

Or is it the constant attempts to crack the toddler code of "I don't have to go potty": does it mean what it means (frequently) or does it mean that within two minutes a puddle will have to be dealt with? And if I don't believe her and insist she try, my reward is sitting on the floor next to her, playing "baby animals" (plot summary: the baby animals get caught in a spiderweb and the mommy animals must rescue them, and repeat!) for twenty-five minutes with no result.

The attempts at suppressing my disappointment/anger/desperation are a ball, too! No way do I want to cause any complexes. So I try to bring the fake mommy cheer. "Where does the pee go? In the potty, right!"

And then there was the fun of the thirty-hour camping trip last week that did away with all the progress we had made during the previous thirty days. (We're back to the previous level now, six days later.)

You would think that my 5+ years of parenting would remind me that small progress does not necessarily mean smooth sailing from that point. Parenting is always two steps forward, one step back (and only one, if you're lucky). But no. I still fall into optimistic thinking: Maybe this is the last case of diapers I'll have to buy . . . until I need them myself.

The cherry on top is managing a still-bed-wetting older sibling. After trying several tactics, we have settled on the alarm-set-to-midnight trick for him. It worked last night. Which means it won't work again for several days.

Sigh.

Comments

[Bearina]

Yup - my least favorite milestone. N. used to say, "oops, Mommy, I spilled."

[Helloself.blogspot.com]

Hi there. Re-reading comments on one of my posts and saw your name. AND I saw this post in Google reader a month ago. We're potty training too, gaarrraaaaaaaa. I'm SO relating to this phrase: "my reward is sitting on the floor next to her..." After our 25 minutes, I get this from KT: "I all done. I had Gas."

HA! Good times, good times.