My little ones on the other hand are a bit more difficult. I remember my little boy using the potty to pee most of the time with the occasional accident. Pooping was a different issue. He refused, REFUSED to poop on the potty. He much preferred to mess himself or just hold it in for days in some cases. It wasn't good. There were quite a few times that I sat in the bathroom with him, both of us in tears, pleading with him to please, for the love of God just poop!! I knew he had to go. HE knew he had to go. Just the same, he clenched and pinched until he was off the toilet and then retired to his room to crap his pants. Many times, he would have the "rabbit dropping" kind and it would just roll out of his shorts and he would go about his business. I wonder how many times we screamed at the dog for doo-doo that wasn't his? This could have been prevented by him wearing underwear, (the boy, not the dog) but to this very day he takes them off every chance he gets. I don't understand it. Maybe it's a boy thing.
It was difficult enough dealing with the frustration of it all, but I was pregnant with my daughter at the time so just cleaning up the messes was difficult. Since I'm small, I carried HUGE with each child so even bending down to pick something up was practically impossible. Fudge nuggets rolling out of shorts was something that was more than just disgusting, it was nearly impossible to clean up without a great deal of effort, discomfort and even pain.
I wanted this kid potty trained before my daughter was born and just before her birth, he finally broke down and pooped on the potty! (Truth be told, I think it fell/was forced out accidentally while he was struggling to get off the potty and I was holding him on it). It took just once or twice before he realized that pooping on the potty was not scary and not dangerous in any way. At last we are on our way!!
Then my daughter was born.
After she arrived in our home, all bets were off. For as much as he absolutely adored his baby sister, he definitely felt the sting of being bumped from the spot of top priority. He completely reverted to not being potty trained at all. All that work, struggle and tears was for nothing. Eventually he came around obviously, but it was rough, let me just tell you.
Now it's my daughter's turn for potty training already. She's doing very well actually. Well, for the most part. OK it sucks but some days are better than others. She generally will tell me that she has to pee after she has already peed a little. I won't yell at her for that, she's still learning and she finishes on the potty so that's not so bad. We do go through probably 10 different outfits a day, but it is just part of the process. I've given up on the Pull-Ups already. First and foremost, they defeat the purpose because they are basically diapers with the added inconvenience of being damn-near impossible to put on. Second, she takes them off faster than I can say "don't you DARE take off that Pull-Up". Luckily, and unlike her brother, she get's totally disgusted when she is soiled in any way so that does seem to motivate towards the notion of going potty. She will not tolerate sticky hands, crumbs on her feet, food on her face and most of all, messed pants. If she has an accident, she walks in with this look of disgust and bordering on panic. And when I say she "walks in" I mean she waddles with her feet as far apart as possible, knees slightly bent and hands up with fingers spread out, them waving around or shaking back and forth. She just doesn't like it.
The other day I was bragging about how great she is doing. I was a proud mama. She's only just turned 2 so I'm pretty pleased all considering. Then a few minutes later, I realized she was not playing in the den as I thought she was. I heard her faint voice coming from upstairs. It was slightly echoing...where the hell was she? Oh My God, she's playing in the bathroom!! Eww! I ran upstairs to drag her out and I found her soaked head to toe and proudly proclaiming "I peed!!". She peed alright. She stood on her step stool to play in the sink and then peed all over. Considering she had just peed less than an hour prior, you can imagine my surprise to find that she let go of what appeared to be 10 gallons. By the time I got up there, she was literally splashing in it! She was smacking the step stool with her hands and making it splatter all over the bathroom and herself. Her entire body including her face was splattered. As her hair fell and stuck to her face, she used her dripping hands to slick it back. I called for help but in spite of the fact that there were five other people in the house, no one responded. I ran across the hall to grab a towel to put her in the bath. It took my only 1 second from the bathroom to her bedroom, yet that afforded her enough time to "paint" the toilet, floor and sink with the pee-pee hands! My husband finally came upstairs as I was peeling her soaked clothes off and then he, for some reason, decided to move the only clean towel I had left from the spot that I placed it to right on top of the toilet seat that was dripping with pee. Granted, he didn't realize the toilet seat was dripping with pee, but I'm still not sure what made him feel the need to move it at all.
I suppose it's all just a part of the joys of raising kids. Some day when she's old enough to be embarrassed, I will read this to her. Her reaction should give me some good future material. Stay tuned for my blog entry, "Baby Girl is Pissed II" coming in 12 years. Until then, I'll just have to keep everyone updated about the rest of the catastrophes that are sure to happen in the mean time.
Sorry about being one of those adults that did nothimg. I just assumed the chaos was your life and thought nothing of it. ;)
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