I'm doing it all wrong!

Well, folks, potty training got off to a pretty good start, but it hasn't been exactly smooth sailing since then. That first day, Thursday, we had the two misses I mentioned in my last post. Friday we had more misses, and these were more serious. I know this is an unrealistic goal to have as a parent, but I fervently, passionately do not want my house to smell like pee. I am a pretty bad housekeeper as it is - I do not need peed-on carpets undermining my halfhearted efforts to keep the house smelling clean.

With equal fervor, I don't want to freak out when Katie pees on the carpet. I don't think that would be good for her self-esteem or the potty learning process. But it is a lot easier for me to be nonchalant and casual about misses that happen on the bathroom floor, which is tile. So I tried my very best to keep my tone of voice light as I watched Katie pee on her bedroom carpet, the carpet outside the bathroom, and the rug in the den. But I probably failed miserably. I vaguely remember saying "Wait wait wait, on the potty! On the potty!" and trying to maneuver her over to the potty without making the mess worse. Oh dear. But she didn't seem to notice anything was amiss. She enjoyed helping me with the steam cleaner afterwards, so much that I was worried this was becoming a fun new game.

By Friday evening, when the third carpet-miss of the day happened, I turned to Anthony and said, "I'm done. Let's go back to diapers. I just can't do this right now - I'm too exhausted to keep reminding her to potty, only to have her pee on the rug within 45 seconds after being reminded." But that night as I was trying to fall asleep, I vowed to keep going. After all, I'd have Anthony's help for the next two days.

And of course, the next two days went really great! We only had one miss on Saturday morning, on the bathroom floor. I was in the shower when it happened, and the first thing I heard when I turned off the water was the sound of the steam cleaner. But, it turns out that there was nothing on the carpet - Katie just thought it would be fun to get the steam cleaner out. (See, she thinks it's a game!)

Sorry, it's taking me a long time to get to my point. Yesterday and so far today, we haven't had any misses, but some serious power struggles are brewing. I'm having more and more trouble convincing Katie to go potty, even when I'm 95% sure she has to go. And I'm getting more worked up about it than I'd like to be, because of the aforementioned carpets. For the past five days, Katie's overnight diaper has been dry in the morning. (Which is awesome and completely unexpected - I thought we'd still diaper her at night for at least a few more months!) But doesn't that mean she probably has to pee when she wakes up? I mean, doesn't everyone? When she finally agrees to go on the potty, she pees a lot! So, aside from the fact that she is two, I have no idea why she keeps saying "NO! NO! NO!" when I ask her if she'd like to potty. I've tried waiting a few minutes before asking. I've tried giving her a choice of potties. All I get is "NO! NO! NO!" until she finally decides it's time.

If this were anything but potty training, I would just let it go and let her do it when she wants to. I know that's ultimately what I'm going to have to do. And I will just have to keep steam cleaning the carpets until she gets it. WAAAAAH! But this does put a bit of a strain on going places. It's one thing if she wants to take her time going potty upon waking up. But I'll be darned if I'm going to let a fledgling undies-wearer leave the house without pottying first. So it's been taking us FOREVER to leave the house. Luckily, we only have one or two things each week that we need to be on time for. If we had to get out of the house at a certain time every day, I think I'd be going insane.

Thanks for letting me rant! I am going to try an experiment when Katie wakes up from her nap today. I'm not going to mention the potty even once, and we will see what happens! It reminds me of something I once heard at a parenting class: "Sleep - you can't make 'em do it!" Same goes for pretty much EVERYTHING with a toddler. Pottying? Can't make 'em do it. Eating? Can't make 'em do it. Even sitting in the car seat. I thought I could make Katie do it, but you all remember how that turned out.

Cross your fingers for dry carpets this afternoon!