Tuesday 19 September 2006

woes of a biffy

The potty-training has stalled.

R, while a master at crawling up on the toilet, arranging herself, taking enormous handfuls of paper and wipingwipingwiping (breaking landspeed records)
refuses to let
one
drop
escape.

She's peed on the biffy twice. Once she was laughing (and probably forgetting to clench) and the other we read books in there for an hour and I think I wore down her resistance. Or possibly she didn't want to hear I Wish That I Had Duck Feet again. My baby the book critic.

I'm amazed I can't remember how we trained her brother (all I remember is it was a damned looong harrrd slog) but I'm almost certain we didn't use M&M's or treats. C got the idea of pee in the potty quickly, but the poop idea? Did not make sense to him for about oh, a year.

Part of the reason I'm so discouraged is that with R's speech the way it is (and she's progressing in leaps and bounds!) even if she was saying "Mama, I need to go potty now please" I might not catch it. While trying hard, her speech is still pretty garbled. So I need to think of a simple phrase she can say clearly before she takes matters into her own hands and starts pantomiming. (Rosey! Stop yanking your skirt......ohhh.)*
She does run to the bathroom door now and twist the knob, but by the time one of us gets there she's wet.

I was certain we had an early start on this - she was going to the bathroom door, making noises, getting up on the toilet....but without success.

Crap - am I really going to have to do the dance?




*Last time I went to church before I moved, the minister had a group of kindergarteners down in from with him, and was asking them stuff about their Sunday School. This sweet-faced little girl leaned right into his microphone and told him she liked the class because Mrs. Wells let them go to the potty and that she needed to go right now.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if nothing else at least she looks stunning sitting on the toilet.

I'm sorry potty training is such a... AARRGGHH. I was ready to take my puppy to the pound because it has taken two months to potty train her. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be with children.

MsCellania said...

Gosh, she is young.
I dunno; in this house, one was trained by a toddler friend. At 2 years, 9 mos. The other one? at 4 years, 7 months. So I'm hardly the one to give advice.
But...
It does sound like you need a potty she can get to much more quickly. A little potty on the floor. And maybe take off all clothing on lower half for a few days so she gets the idea? Or put her in thick cotton training pants so she feels when she wets? We are still in Hannah Andersson trainers. Youngest refuses to give them up. They are so comfy, so easy to pull up and down. He sees the waistbands in regular undies and says "Those are not okay, Mommy!" Otherwise, I'd send you ours!
Toilet Training; I swear most parents forget the pain of it, like childbirth! I think back and think "It wasn't that bad!" Who am I kidding - It was HORRIBLE!

Angewl said...

I know Savannah is not ready. Sorry I am no help. It did take my boys a LONG time to get down the pooping.

She is trying, though. I think thats great.

Adorable pic!

Lily'sMama said...

Look at all that hair!! Too cute!

I have just started to let Lily get familiar with the potty by sitting her on it, etc. She does tell us after she has "pooped" in her diaper but when I have set her on the potty to do anything she just looks at me. This will be a frustrating process I am sure!

Anonymous said...

Jess ~ Nora's in the same boat right now. She's more interested in bringing her little potty to the living room (which is so not allowed!!) than doing anything in it. They're still young... I just have to keep reminding myself of that. :)
Kat

Joke said...

Here's what we did and see if it helps:

Regularly scheduled potty trips. Every X minutes until we were finally able to say "By George, I think he's got it."

No, not easy or convenient, but far preferable to all that tedious mopping.

-J.

Jeanne said...

Taking them regularly, letting them go naked, using traning pants instead of pull-ups... all good ideas.

My three oldest were all toilet-trained by about age 2 1/2. (except at night) My fourth is taking a really long time. He is almost four, and is quite capable of getting to the toilet and knowing when he has to go, he just doesn't WANT to. I tried him with no pants and he learned within two days. When he has no pants on, he goes to the bathroom. (I guess he doesn't want to pee on himself? Or maybe it just seems a lot easier?) But put pants on him and STILL half the time he decides not to go. (At least we have made progress, it used to be ALL of the time). Grrrrr. Really frustrating.

My float said...

We're potty training too. My son has refused to use it. End of story. Let's stop he's not the first 18 year old to wear a nappy at his graduation.

My float said...

Let's HOPE, not let's stop. Blame it on sleep deprivation!

Anonymous said...

Yes. Yes you will have to do the dance. Or jump up and down. Or stand on your head. Or spell out pee-pee in semaphore until she finally catches on. Gah! The things we do (or did)to get through this part of our kids' growing up. Astounding.

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