POTTY POWER!!

Little Girl has finally got it! She's got "POTTY POWER!!!" We borrowed a DVD from our neighbors by that title, and there's a little song about having potty power. It's cheesy and dumb, but it helped!

There have been several factors which have culminated in her recent successes putting poop in the potty. 1- The last time she had put it in her pants, I made her pick it up and put it into the potty with her bare hand. That grossed her out. (Whatever it takes, right?) That was 8 days ago. She has used the potty ever since. 2- Another trick was to set her up with a large mixing bowl with water in it and some kitchen gadgets that she was allowed to play with ONLY while sitting on the potty. These were gadgets she has frequently been tempted to play with, and has been scolded for retrieving without permission. I could do without my egg slicer for a while so long as it was employed in the purpose of tempting her to poop in the potty. 3- The DVD opened another avenue for us to talk about it and give us other words to use. After 8+ months of dealing with this issue, variety was a good thing. 4- I do think praying about it helped. It helped my attitude, and also led me to try the more regimented approach which didn't end up working, but at least I did give it a real honest try.

I have been so preoccupied with other things that I hadn't really taken the opportunity to notice that in the last week or so, Little Girl has not worn a single pull-up, and has not pooped her pants. She has had a few #1 accidents, but most of those were near the potty onto which she was trying to get situated, and just couldn't get to fast enough. She hasn't learned how long she can wait. That will come. I'm not too worried about it. I can wash pee accident stuff without too much distress. The last couple of pooped-in panties found themselves thrown away rather than washed. I'm glad that didn't last too long. My frugal side would have given way to washing them out again, and that would have led to putting Little Girl in pull-ups again, and that would have prolonged the failures.

I can't say enough how happy I am that this potty-training chapter seems to be drawing to a close. It has been one of the longest, most frustrating things I have had to endure in all my six and a half years of parenting!

I have "Monkey Wrench" by Foo Fighters in my head. That's an odd one... I don't know the last time I heard that song.