Potty Training Juliet (2 years, 2 months)

I feel like I need to document the process of "poppy" training Juliet. Lord knows I will want to look back at it when it is time for #3. I'm just going to say that potty training is my Kryptonite. I like to think that I am a calm, focused parent. When it's potty training time, though, I become an entirely different person. I am so much more stressed and rattled. 

We started playing with the idea of potty training Juliet in May. She was waking up with dry diapers regularly (about 50% of the time), so Chris would put her on the potty right away on the weekend mornings that he was home. Truthfully, I wasn't thrilled with it. I like our routine of all laying in the bed for 20-30 minutes and cuddling and talking. Once they go potty, they quickly want to get dressed, go downstairs, and eat breakfast. Anyway, Juliet would pee on the potty right away. She was really comfortable with it (which was the opposite of how Leah felt about the potty). 

After doing this for a few weekends, I started experimenting with putting her in undies in the morning. She would do okay, and even stayed dry for 5 consecutive runs to pick Leah up from Princess Camp. On the last day of Princess Camp, I changed her into a diaper for nap. After nap (she woke up dry and refused to go on the potty), she went pee in her diaper, then took it off and gave it to me! "Change me!", she said. I said, "no". From that moment on, we were done with diapers. 

At that point, she was really upset with the decision. We spent a memorable Friday evening tag teaming her in the bathroom. She would get super upset, throw her head back and scream loudly. She would shout "NO WORK!" over and over. She looked like a wild, feral child. It took a couple of days to break this. The thing was, we knew she could do it. She had done it. Regularly. She just didn't want to going through the process. 

From the start, she was reasonably dependable with pee. There were a few accidents here and there, but atleast they genuinely felt like accidents. Like many kids, poop was the issue. There were several days of poop problems. The worst was when she held it in for days, refused to try on the potty, and then put herself in time out to poop (under the guise of being put there for standing on her chair, and refusing to sit down during dinner). There were several poop accidents that all thoroughly disgusted and annoyed me. Leah even told me to be calmer and nicer. 

However, it's been 2 weeks, and I feel like we are there. The poop issues have gone away. During her birthday party (stimulation overload), she stayed dry and told me every time she needed to potty. I am so excited to have her potty trained. I forgot how much nicer it is to not have to deal with diapers. 

So, I guess when I come back to reread this in a few years, I want to tell myself to remember how relatively short the experience is. It's worth it.