Poopie talk Fridays

I thought I'd give one (hopefully!) last potty training update.

Four weeks ago on Monday, darling daughter and I started on our potty training journey with the three-day potty training method. A month after starting potty training, I'm proud to say that we are about 95 per cent trained (knock on wood).

Now, I hope the potty training gods don't look upon this post and spite me for being cocky enough to say that we are almost at the end of the training journey. For the last week and a half, darling daughter has been pooping in the potty like a little champ. After initiating positive peer pressure, naming every kid to her who she knows who poops in the potty, both dear husband and I then introduced the "push, push, push" mantra. Push, push, push, we tell her. Push that poop out! We sound like a pair of labour and delivery nurses cheering on a patient. But you got to do what you have to do to encourage potty training.

It seems to be working. Now when she is trying to do her business, she says "push, push, push." Plus, the special surprises (otherwise known as Smarties) help as an incentive for potty usage.

The reason I say 95 per cent and not 100 per cent is because of the use of Pullups. Last week I gathered up enough courage to try out disposable training pants. Darling daughter was sick and no one was getting any sleep until I got her to wear Pullups. They were a security blanket of sorts, allowing her to sleep past 4 a.m. in her own bed. Having a tossing, kicking toddler in your bed at 4 a.m. is not a lot of fun as no one gets sleep.

For the most part, darling daughter is dry in the mornings. Last night when we got her up at 11 p.m. for her nightly pee and Pullup change she didn't have them on for very long. About an hour later she was demanding the Pullup off and wanting underwear instead.

So this is where we are in our potty training journey. There have been a lot of hard work, tears, poopie messes, coaxing and poopie talk. It is a work in progress and hopefully we will soon be done.

Poopie talk

Dear readers,

I'm sure you are very tired of all this poop and potty training talk. I assure you, so am I. However, all things about poop and related to poop has become my life. Today, I ruined a batch of muffins because I forgot to add the sugar to the batter. It wasn't due to lack of sleep. It was because I was distracted by darling daughter's insistent poopie dance. So I thought I'd wrap up the week with some poopie talk.

I'm still waging a quiet war with darling daughter in over her reluctance to poop on the potty. There is a phrase my mom would often quote to me when I was older: poop or get off the pot. Basically I've used this as my mantra all week. Since last Sunday, we haven't had a successful poop-meet-potty encounter. I have been able to resist the urge in not buying disposable training pants, but it has been hard. No one wants to clean up poop. And toddler poop is quite disgusting.

With the new poop or get off the pot mindset, I've decided to use another arsenal in my toolbox in getting darling daughter to poop: positive peer pressure. I suddenly got the idea after attending a playdate earlier in the week. Darling daughter is enamoured with one particular girl. Loves her. Loves to play with her. So afterwards when darling daughter was singing her praises on the car ride home, I suddenly said, "Did you know that A knows how to poop in the potty?" (A true fact). This piqued darling daughter's interest. I didn't stop there. I continued. "Did you know that C knows how to poop in the potty? Did you know that M knows how to poop in the potty? Did you know that K knows how to poop in the potty?" I mentally went down the list of all the big kids darling daughter has encountered in the last two months and told her that they poop in the potty. Basically my message was, if all the kids are doing it, you can too!

The peer pressure tactic could be working. Several times a day, I take time to engage in some poopie talk with darling daughter. We talk about where it comes from and the fact it is yucky and it needs to go in the potty. We also discuss how big girls wear underwear and big girls use the potty. We talk about how A uses the potty, as well as C, K and M. Daddy uses the potty. Mommy uses the potty. Everyone uses the potty. For good measure, I even told her that Calliou uses the potty, too.

So today when she was doing the insistent potty dance, I brought down the potty into the living room and urged her to use the potty. "No want to. No want to. No want to," was the response I got. I quietly reminded her that A poops in the potty and her mommy gets her a special treat. And if she could do it, she could too. Plus, she'd get a special treat, just like A. It could have been the fact that she couldn't hold it in any longer or that peer pressure is working, but we finally had a successful poop-meets-potty encounter. Thank God! A happy poop-free toddler makes me happy.