Potty training

For several months Megan has been anti-diaper. Every time she'd wet her diaper she'd get mad and pull at it and take it off. She also really liked sitting on the potty. I figured she'd lose interest. All my kids around 18 months started to be interested in the potty, then they'd have a couple months of not, then a month of potty interest again, and all have finally been potty trained around their second birthday, though after Rachel I tried to put it off longer for each of them. They wouldn't let me.

Megan wouldn't even let me wait until her second birthday. I figured that since we're going on a road trip in July to Idaho, after that would be good for potty training. That way she could have diapers in the car and we would have one less bladder to worry about stopping for. But after a couple months of this taking off the diaper every time she peed, she began taking it off before she needed to. I think it's partially because she has a bladder of steel and can hold it so long that no matter what size diaper she has on it would overflow and leak on her pants almost every time. And she REALLY hates wet clothes. So it was either clean up the puddles or teach her to use the potty.

Once I had decided to just go for it I realized that my schedule was crazy in April and there wasn't any day for 2 weeks that we could just stay at home for the whole day and do a potty party with lots of liquid and get her a lot of practice using the potty. So we did a few hours here and there. Then some kid got sick and forced some plans to be cancelled, so we took advantage. She did mediocre. She got about 50% in the potty, less on #2. Luckily the only time she doesn't fight about getting a diaper on is when we're leaving the house. Apparently getting in the car is a good enough incentive that she'll give in to her arch nemesis.

Then all of a sudden last weekend when we were at the Air and Space Museum she told me two separate times, "Pah-ee teat!" and held it until we got to the bathroom, used the toilet, and happily got her potty treat. Since then she's had maybe 3-4 accidents in the whole week. Usually when she's playing outside and apparently doesn't want to stop the fun. And she's gotten #2 in the toilet every time except today when she had removed her diaper when she woke up from her nap, but was stuck in her crib and couldn't get to the potty on her own. I heard her calling "potty" and ran and got her a little too late, but she finished on the toilet.

The girl really doesn't like the potty and definitely prefers the toilet. I guess she wants to be like the rest of us. Unless Ryan tries to use her potty then she gets mad and makes him get off so she can sit on it. Every time I ask "Do you have to go potty?" she replies "No!" I guess she's almost 2 and must answer every question with no. If she does have to go for real, a few seconds later she'll declare, "Potty treat!" and run in to use the potty.

I'll call it a success. And though it is my most hated parenting job, I have to admit it wasn't so bad this time. Though usually the part I hate is what comes over the next few months where they have weeks where they don't care about the toilet at all and have 3 accidents a day for a week, then it magically relsolves itself for another few weeks or months. We'll see how that goes.