A few months ago, we thought Charly was catching on to this potty training business. She didn't really want to wear underwear, but Pull-ups were ok. She didn't like the "big potty" but her "little potty" was ok. Every time she was successful, she had to dial up all the grandpas and grandmas and let 'em know.
Then we went to Des Moines.
Set the poor girl back two months. She was freaked out by public restrooms. Not being in her own house made her anxious. And any type of progress we had made, was killed.
We tried occasionally, here and there, to coax her into underwear or Pull-ups, but the darn girl was just too stubborn. We even bought all kinds of fun underwear for her. She wanted nothing to do with them. Sometimes she'd show interest but only if she was allowed to run around the house half-naked! She had chosen she didn't want to wear anything but diapers, hence we were still stuck buying them.
Then last Thursday night, she said to us, "I wear underwear. At Mel's house." We looked at each other and said, "Ok." We put her in a Pull-up that night and on Friday morning, she was as dry as could be. We put her in one to go to daycare but sent along underwear and at the end of the day discovered that Mel had changed her into underwear pretty early in the day and she had NO ACCIDENTS at Mel's house.
Friday night was more of the same. No accidents. We stayed pretty close to home, learning our lesson from the last time. On Saturday, we forfeited tailgating plans with friends to stay close to home and Saturday night, shut ourselves inside once more. But, since Thursday night, remained accident free.
She woke up dry on Sunday and we decided to venture out of the house later in the day, to the park. After a while of playing and staring at all the busy kids playing, she started pulling at her pants and rocking from foot to foot. We were a little worried. But she went with Kelli into the restrooms at the park and did it! She came out and was so excited, she wanted to go do it again! So Kelli took her again! Then she came out and was excited even more, so Kelli took her one more time!
We knew we were finally in the clear. Now Monday and Tuesday have passed and we have had nothing but dry nights and accident-free days. We're sure there will be some bumps in the road to come, but if we've learned anything in this annoying potty-training business, it's this: don't rush your child. What is the point in hurrying your child when they are not ready? We knew Charly was stubborn enough to want to go on her own time, and at 2 years and 6 months, we saw nothing wrong with that. Sure buying diapers a little longer than we wanted to was not fun, but washing sheets and quilts nightly was not something we wanted to add to our already busy at-home routine.
Potty-training had to be one of our least favorite things to embark on so far, but now that it may be in the rearview mirror, we realize it is quite the accomplishment. Her little face lights up each time she goes (probably because we've been showering her with presents - I kind of left out that part earlier, didn't I?), so we know she's rather proud of herself.
We just can't believe we've got a little girl running around the house in underwear instead of diapers . . . kind of sad really.
Then there's Hayes. He didn't want to feel left out, so he popped a tooth and started crawling. The little stinker!
