Niamh: 2 - Potty: Nil

Round two of the potty training diaries

Friday night I had a nice long chat with my parents on the phone, after a week of business trips and flights, it was good to be home, and even better because I got to talk to my family back in Florida as well.

My mom asked how the potty training is going. The answer to this, is that since she was here in April, we haven’t tried at all. You might remember from my previous post that we tried this earlier this year (you know, the blog with a pic of my daughter on the toilet, which will be evidence as to why we one day have to pay for therapy). We tried the naked method then, because in theory, children don’t like the feeling of piss running down their legs. My daughter however, realized that she didn’t like that, but that she could squat and pee on the floor without making herself messy.

Round One: Niamh: 1 vs Potty: Nil

Well talking to my mom made me feel pretty confident that Niamh might be ready for another try. After all, as soon as she goes number two she comes up to you and tells you that she has gone and wants her diaper changed. This is conscious behavior, right?

When I hung up the phone, I picked up Niamh’s parent-teacher notebook from pre-school, and then had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I read that Niamh went potty twice on the big girl toilet at school!!! Well, clearly my toddler is ready and Mommy and Daddy are just holding her back!

I call Niamh over to me and explain that I heard she went potty at school.

“Yes,” she tells me.

“Was it fun?” I ask.

“Yes” she says.

So I tell her that if she has to go potty at home, let mommy and daddy know and we will take her.

A big excited nod and she goes back to watching cartoons and playing with her favorite rock. (She collects them from our neighbor’s driveway, I’m confident they are ecstatic about my two year old picking up their rocks. At one point their driveway looked like it was a stone path, but now it looks more like moon craters where the rocks once were).

No sooner had she resumed her spot, then I heard my husband shout, "Dalton, she wants to go to the potty, I think she's going to poop. Grab the camera!"

As my eyes fill with tears at my big girl, and what can only be described as the true transition from baby to big girl - I fly into the study and grab the camera, the video camera and meet my husband and Niamh in the bathroom.

Brimming with tears, I stretch the back of the diaper out to take a peak. I spot a dark mass.

"Quick!" I shout to Dom, who is reading the camera. "I think she's already started.

As I carefully remove the diaper and set her on the toilet, I notice what's inside the diaper. Her rock.

False alarm, we were duped by a two year old. I decided to be the bigger person (sometimes its an effort you know!) and pretend that she actually had to go, and incessantly praised her for essentially sitting still and watching us scramble for cameras, vying to be first on the scene for the monumental moment.

What's the craziest things your kids have done during potty training?