Now that I've gotten that outta the way...
I have seen more than my fair share of bodily excretions lately.
Grace and I are working on the potty training thing, albeit quite slowly. I figure that if I just keep nudging her towards the potty, eventually she'll figure it out and just do it. I don't make a huge deal out of it, but I try to work it in whenever we are home for any length of time.
Yesterday I had her in training pants (real cloth ones, not Pull-Ups) for much of the day, and while she barely wet one pair, she stayed dry almost all day. I was so proud of her! It's like she knows that when she has panties on, she needs to hold it if she's got to go. The problem is she hasn't figured out that it's okay to go in the potty. She's still fixated on going in her diaper.
Right before we took a shower last night, I stuck her on the potty. I was prepared to wait for quite a while. We talked, we played, we read books, I think I even dozed off for a minute or two. She sat on her potty for about twenty minutes.
Finally I just gave up and asked her to take her dirty clothes back to her bedroom before we got into the shower. I hustled over to the computer for just a second to see if Kurt had emailed me, when all of a sudden I heard the distinctive tinkle.
Sure enough, Gracie was peeing on the floor, standing between the toilet and her potty.
Unfortunately I scared her accidentally when I ran back to the bathroom to try to sit her on the potty before it was too late. She cried a bit, but I told her it was okay, that sometimes when you're learning something new you make mistakes. I'm just glad she peed IN the bathroom; mopping up pee from a tile floor is no biggie, compared to mopping up pee from carpet.
Did I mention my house is done in white Berber carpet???
It was definitely not my idea. I would have picked something equally neutral but much more stain-resistant, personally. But it's what was here when we moved in, and it was brand new.
So Grace and I get showered, and for some reason I'm letting her run around naked when I had to come out to the living room. There in front of my couch, on my once-white Berber carpet, is bright yellow dog puke.
Oh, joy of joys.
Fortunately I am one with the power of Folex carpet cleaner. That stuff totally rocks. If you do not have any, you need to hie yourself down to your nearest Walmart and get yourself a bottle. My white carpet no longer has a bright yellow patch where there was dog puke last night, so you know it works.
Today was Grace's day at playgroup down at the rec center, and before we left, she had her normal dirty diaper. No big deal; I'm quite used to it by now. She tends to be a once-a-day pooper, which makes my life easy. We did the whole Cabin Fever thing, where she ran around and was just cute in general, and then we went down to the bakery cafe to have lunch. Mmmm pastrami and swiss on rye -- and Grace ate half my sandwich! My "boyfriend" wasn't there, but that's because he leaves at 11am most days, and I was there in the afternoon. But I got into several conversations with the customers because Grace is just too damn friendly. Any time someone came in the bakery, she would stop eating and wave, saying, "Hello!!"
When we got home from downtown, I tried to get her to take a nap, which failed. But I got a nap, twenty minutes of good rest, followed by ten minutes of just enjoying laying there. I love naps.
Once I got her back up, I put her in panties again. We'd been so successful last night that I figured maybe we could repeat it, only with actual pottying going on!
I am the eternal optimist.
She had the panties on for probably 30 minutes when I asked her if she was dry. Usually she says, "Yay! Dry!!!" This time she sort of evaded answering, and sure enough, she was wet. I took her into the bathroom to have her sit on the potty. I was in the midst of taking off her panties when I realized she wasn't just wet. She had pooed in her panties as well.
So then I had a big ol' mess to clean up. Fun stuff.
I put another pair of panties on her, and she stayed dry for quite some time. I put her on the potty a few times, but then it was time for dinner. By the time she was done eating, she'd wet her panties and the chair pad.
Oh well. I needed to do a load of laundry anyhow.
I know she'll get the potty thing eventually; we do all get potty-trained. She wants to wear the panties -- I'll give her the choice between panties and diapers, and she always picks the panties. I just don't think she understands yet that when she has that feeling, she should go sit on the potty. I completely understand that; I hate stopping what I am doing to go to the bathroom, and I have a bad tendency of holding it too long. I also think that once she actually pees in the potty that it will definitely click for her. I don't expect her to be trained from that second on, but I do know she'll get it a lot better.
We'll just keeping plugging away slowly. As long as she's potty trained by kindergarten, we're good. ;o)