The Potty

When I was 2 and getting potty trained, I had a particularly successful day, followed by a trip to the local grocery store. I spent the shopping trip loudly and proudly singing, "I go poo poo in my potty! Make my Mommy SOOOO proud of me!"

Gross.

I haven't been pushing the potty training issue in our house. I know a lot of people who seem very concerned about gradually introducing the potty training process - their kids are peeing once a day in the potty for months and months and that's great, but it's not my bag. I have no desire to drag the potty training process out any longer than necessary. My plan has been to wait until Edie is actively interested in getting out of diapers (not just curious about the potty) and then go hardcore with a week of intense training. I'm told this involves a lot of time in "big girl underwear", large bottles of Gatorade, long days at home, and lots of laundry. Fun!

But then something weird happened this afternoon. At around 5pm, I was using the bathroom when Edie said that she wanted to "sit on the potty like Mommy". Overshare? Sorry. She was rather insistent, so I jokingly took her shorts and diaper off and held her over the toilet. She almost fell in and freaked out about hovering on the edge of the large toilet seat. So we went upstairs to get a new diaper on and instead she went over to her little potty thing in the upstairs bathroom and sat on it. She then proceeded to chill on the mini-toilet for a long period of time. We read stories and shot the shit a bit. It was weird! Not only has she shown a lack of interest in the toilet lately, the few times I've asked her randomly if she wants to sit on the potty (like after a bath, when she's naked and says something about needing to pee and the mini-toilet is RIGHT next to her) she has hated the idea, running scared from the little blue potty. So for her randomly to show such intense interest in sitting on the toilet for what felt like a long time to me, was funny. I got bored pretty quickly. After the 4th book, I said I'd be right back and went downstairs to get a basket of clean laundry. When I walked upstairs approximately 10 seconds later, Edie was standing proudly next to the potty and said, "Edie did pee in the potty". We both peered into the tiny toilet and lo! There was pee! I gave her an extra gummy vitamin (her favorite thing ever) and praised the shit out of the whole thing. She LOVED flushing the toilet and insisted on doing it immediately all over again. At this point I had to run to my dance class so Jeff took over. I'm getting the impression much time was subsequently spent by Jeff on the floor of the upstairs bathroom because she proceeded to pee two more times in the toilet tonight and was one very proud toddler indeed.

I'll be very curious tomorrow to see if this was just a random adventure in peeing, or a new trend. I'll keep you posted. Or maybe not - is this gross? I hate parents who talk all the time about their kid's bathroom habits - GROSS. Perhaps I'll just put a short update in her 2 year letter later this month. Which reminds me that I'm behind on her 23 month letter - Gah!