Once Upon a Potty

I am very proud to say that Lyla did her first poop today on the potty. Training this child to go pee, much less poop has been a real challenge. Lyla is not a great transitioner, and as her teacher's will also point out, she doesn't love to go from one thing to another if she's not ready. This has made making time for the potty a little hard. For a while, we would ask, and she would say no, she hated big girl underwear, and she never cared if she was wet, full of poop, or peeing right on the floor. We cheered her when she did it, read stories, talked about the high life of being able to pee and poop on the potty or toilet. All of the eureka things parents say your child won't tolerate, Lyla has. I've heard M&M's work, but my 411 book (which I swear by) says no amount of M&Ms will coax your kid to the potty if they don't care if they're dirty.

We didn't push it, and I went with the advice to let her do it when she was ready to start. However, almost all of the kids in her "young twos" class are potty trained. A few can still barely talk, and they're peeing and pooping. I know she's smart enough, and gets it, believe me. Last week we drove past the museum where we took our Christmas card photos in November (haven't been back since), and Lyla said, "That's where I walked with Zu Zu and Ali, and Daddy wore his furry orange hat." We couldn't believe she remembered the whole scene after six months with never a mention from us. If she could remember that, she could remember how to sit her wee ass on the hole and wizz.

Two and a half weeks ago, I left her pants and underwear and diaper off all morning, and asked her 100 times an hour if she needed to go. She actually went a few times, including the women's room at Panera Bread. As an aside, Lyla will do anything at Panera Bread. I should get a job there, and keep her around all the time. Or, I should start inviting everyone that comes to our house there for a bite, so they can see the angelic Panera Lyla. It's her safe haven. She is always polite and nice to everyone there (she is going through a very rude to new people phase which is highly unpleasant), she eats all her food, she laughs and entertains herself. It's just great. So, it was no surprise that she both peed and washed her hands there.

I had Jean keep it up with her, and the trend started. In the last few weeks she's been going pretty consistently on the potty, and isn't begging for her diaper as she would in the past. She has had a few slip-ups, but that is to be expected. Actually, last week Trent was away, and in the morning while I was on the potty myself, Lyla crawled onto our bed. When I joined her in there, she started jumping on top of the bed (with no pants on). Next thing you know, she states that she's peeing, and in an instant, she pees all over the duvet cover, duvet, and sheets, all with a sinister laugh. When Lyla pees, it's like a guy, she points it all up, and it streams out in an arc. I don't know how she does it. Needless to say her proud pee was everywhere. We had to have a little talk after that since I knew she knew what was up. She decided to have a pee party, and she knew what she was doing. Don't get me started on her euqally proud use of the word Jesus lately.

Anyway, we're really happy she's on a good run, and have started keeping her in underwear all day, and she's started to go on her own, and also tell us. We haven't done bed time or car yet (except the short run to Panera). Yesterday, Jean told me she said she had to go, and when Jean took her, she had already pooped. However, it was great that she said something. So, today, I get into work, and have a message from Jean with good news. She left Lyla on the potty while making her a drink, and when she returned, a poop! Ta da. It's a miracle.

We can only keep pooping from here folks.