THE SKINNER'S

THE SKINNER'S

Friday, September 4, 2009

Uh-oh, I think I just committed myself to potty-training

Caleb and Alethia have been exposed to the idea of pooping and peeing on the potty way earlier that we had planned. Poor Caleb has some rather large poo-poo and he can't go in his diaper usually; he has to have some "space" underneath for the poo-poo to come out. So we've been using the potty seat just for poo-poo since they were about 19 months old. Alethia has been excited about it and so has he but we haven't officially tried to train them, just let them use it if they needed. When either of them go on the potty they do get 2 yogo bites (yummy), and since their twins and you can't give one something without the other without MAJOR trauma, IF the other one "encourages" the one who went potty then the encourager is allowed to have one yogo bite. So we hear a lot of "YAY Caleb!" and "YAY Lae-Lae! You can do it!!" around this house.

So here's where my committment came in today. Caleb has needed our little potty chair this week and so it was sitting out in the kitchen today. Alethia already had a full diaper put she started saying she wanted to sit on Elmo and use the potty. I told her she could sit on Elmo after I cleaned up her diaper IF she still had to go. We try to not develop bad habits of having the potty seat as a toy so that we're not breaking habits when we actually DO want to potty train.

Anyway, Alethia was fine with the plan until I started to wipe off her bottom: "NOOOO MOMMYYYYY! Don't take my poo-poo!! DON'T!!!!" This was followed by intense mourning over Mommy's decision to wipe off the poo-poo and not let her sit on Elmo and put it in the potty. Oh it was tragic.....tears....runny nose....wailing. And then she yelled and cried, "I WANT DADDY!!!" Surely Daddy would NEVER take her poo-poo. He wouldn't be so cruel. Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't anywhere nearby so I said, "Honey do you miss Daddy?? We can call him and you can talk to him on the phone if you want." She said, "My miss Daddddddyyyyyy!" I said, "Should we call Daddy??" She said, "No, my want to cry for Daddy!"

So there you have it. Even at 2 she knows when she just needs a good cry! A good thing for a woman to learn!

But once Alethia mentioned Daddy then Caleb started whining for Daddy, "My want Daddy toooooo!" So, in an effort to distract the complete meltdown for Daddy that I couldn't resolve on my own because Daddy wouldn't be home for a long time, I went back to focus on the potty. I said, "You know what, next week we can try to use the potty again. And if you have poo-poo you can put it in the potty BEFORE it comes out in your diaper. You remember how Elmo uses the potty and has big boy underpants??

that was it. that statement was my error. watch what happened.

"My want to learn to use potty. My want underpants."
"My want underpants too!"
"My want pink underpants"
"My want blue underpants"
So I said, "Well, Mommy's not ready for you to have underpants yet. Mommy has to read a book and THEN we can learn to use underpants."
So off they went to naptime saying, "Mommy read book and we get underpants."

Then when they got in their room Caleb walked right over to his dresser and pulled out the pack of training underpants that my mom had bought months ago. We've never even gotten them out so I have no idea how he even knew they were there. But he pulled them out and said, "My want underpants now. Put them on Mommy."
"My want pink underpants! Where my underpants??"
So Caleb walked over to Alethia's dresser and pulled hers out from underneath all of her clothes in a drawer that they haven't even used much.
"There's your pink underpants Lae Lae. Mommy read book then you get underpants."

Unbelievable......now what......all I was trying to do was calm them from missing their Daddy and now I think I have to potty train for real!!!

THEN, they both wanted to sleep with their underpants in their beds!!! Seriously, they got their blankets, stuffed animals, Dora and Diego figurines, and what every two year old sleeps with, a pair of underpants. So now their asleep, dreaming about potty's and underpants......and I'm looking for my potty training book.....Yeah, Daddy will be happy about this one when he gets home, huh?? Oopsy-daisy!
We'll see if they drop it, but something tells me they won't. That's one of the joys of twins - when one forgets, the other reminds!!

I actually think they are ready for it, I just haven't been. But maybe I can gear myself up for it and try to convince Daddy that we're ready. Wish me luck!!

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