September 25, 2007

Pool Day

We are a little over a week away from Lil C’s second birthday. I have not, in any way, been pushing her to use the potty yet because I learned that lesson the hard way with Big I. She will go when she is ready to go. It’s practically my mantra. In fact, if you tell me that you think two-year olds should already be potty trained, I will probably stick my fingers in my ears and hum loudly. I’m not allowing external forces (also known as my grandmother, etc.) to pressure me; and I’m not going to pressure Lil C.

Despite my not pushing her, Lil C has taken a great interest in the potty lately. Unfortunately, this interest is usually only after I have changed her diaper. She then wants to "sit on a poppy" after the point is already moot. Then, she’ll forget that she’s supposed to be sitting on the "poppy" and start wandering around diaper-less on my white carpet, causing me an anxiety attack for a couple minutes before I finally convince her that we’d both be happier if she had a diaper on.

In addition to her little obsession with sitting on the poppy, she’s also obsessed with these little animal toys. She collected random little people characters from the zoo and the farm, her V-tech train animals, and any random figurine she’s received over the years such as Care Bears, Jungle Book characters, etc. and they go absolutely EVERYWHERE with us. At any given time, she has at least five of them in her arms. Leaving the house causes great anxiety unless I can find a bag and dump all of the animal characters in there for her. If we abandon any one of them at home, it’s cause for a complete and total meltdown. And yes, she has cataloged them all to memory. If we forget the monkey, she will cry for the monkey for a good 30 minutes. If she happens to see a random monkey image on a billboard or something, it will jog her memory enough to elicit all new "Oh NO MONKEY!" cries.

So, you take these two interests of hers: the "poppy" and the animals, combine them, and you have this:

. . . a "pool day" (her words-not mine). Did I mention she also loves the pool?

Somehow I’m thinking that true potty action isn’t going to happen with the "pool poppy;" and something tells me we’re at least a little while away from potty trained bliss. . .