I can still remember
How that potty did not make Kyra smile.
And I knew if she had a second chance
She could do that pee pee dance
And make mommy happy for a while.
But February made her shiver
And no pee pee did she deliver
Bad news in the diaper
I couldn't get too hyper.
I can't remember if I cried
When Kyra would go off and hide
To poo poo without me by her side
The day the potty training died.
So we said bye-bye to potty time
Put the pull-ups in the closet
To keep them dry.
And them good ol' diapers were back on her backside
Singing "Oh well, we gave it a try. We will do better next time."
Today marked the beginning of the "next time". After months of half-hearted attempts to get Kyra potty trained, I had finally had enough. Jim and I agreed that it was going to take team work and 100% dedication on our part to give Kyra a fair shot at learning to use the potty, so he took the day off work today and we began our "P90-X" version of potty training.
Earlier this week, I took Kyra to Wal-Mart (ah, Wal-Mart) and let her pick out her "big girl" panties. She chose a 3 pack of Minnie Mouse and a 7 pack of Sesame Street themed underwear. First thing this morning, I put her on the toilet (Kyra has declared she'd rather use the "big potty" than the "little potty") and then into her first pair of panties. She chose a very chic Minnie Mouse glitter pair to get us started with a bang.
After breakfast, we once again sat on the potty, but after 20 minutes still had yet to put any pee pee in the toilet. Knowing it would drive us both insane to keep her on the potty for eternity, I opted to let her play for 10 minutes and then try again. Of course less than 10 minutes later she peed all over the play room floor and even managed to get the front side of the couch. I rushed her to the bathroom and put her back on the toilet to make sure she was finished while Jim cleaned up the mess. We then put on panty #2. And next I filled her juice cup.
Part of our strategy for the day was to keep her filled with fluids to give her the maximum number of opportunities to get familiar with using the toilet and that "gotta go" feeling. The first 4 hours of the day were measured by trial and error. We underestimated how quickly the juice would work it's way through her system and panty #2 didn't stand a chance. Neither did my entire outfit for that matter as I scooped her up onto my hip and raced her to the bathroom as soon as she began to pee.
By lunch time we had cleaned the floor three times and changed panties five. Panty #6, a simple little Elmo pair, actually lasted several hours. After Kyra's first 3 major accidents, she began to alert us right as she was about to start peeing and we were able to make it to the potty before anything besides her underwear got soiled. We had one more major accident toward the end of the evening, but Kyra managed to end the day in panty #8. Which means I didn't need to reuse the 5 pairs I frantically washed at noon "just in case".
All in all I would say today was a success. Kyra definitely is taking steps in the right direction and I'm hoping tomorrow she'll begin to give us enough warning to keep her cute little panties dry.
*Thanks goes out to Aunt Katie for encouraging me by recommending some blogs on potty training.
