Bits and Pieces

When last we spoke, things were not going well with potty training. I'm glad I shared that, because I heard from quite a few people who have been there and it felt good to hear that we were not alone and to remind me that potty training really isn't easy for most people. I think the funniest response about the subject was in a text from my neighbor after I asked her if her daughter had the same issue with potty training that we're dealing with and she replied "Oh she sure did! I erased it from memory!" I know for sure that I will try to erase this week from my memory in no time.

It turns out though that calming down and taking a breather helped tremendously. After one day of us backing off completely she took the reins and decided that she was going to tackle this thing after all. She has not had an accident since Saturday morning and she even conquered her first public toilet experience. I wanted to hose her off with disinfectant afterwards, but I kept cool. Thank goodness for seat covers that cover the sides of the seat. The issue we are dealing with now is one that I hear is quite common with her age group--holding #2, to the point of extreme discomfort. We're working that out (literally) and have some good suggestions from her doctor. Once we get through this stage we will be out of the woods over this all consuming hell that is potty training. I will attempt to reprogram my brain to erase all memories of this experience and if we decide to have another child I will hire a potty trainer to take care of this job. Just kidding. Kind of...

Honestly, if I'd known how challenging and patience-trying and anxiety inducing this experience was going to be I would have waited to even try. If I'd known a week ago what this past week would feel like, I would not have hesitated to wait until her 3rd birthday. Delaying the inevitable? Possibly. I'll never know, but I think a different approach altogether would have worked better and we just set the stage for issues by starting this out the way we did. Live and learn. And self medicate with dark chocolate cupcakes.

Aside from the saga of potty training, however, we have actually done a few other things. I haven't brought out my real camera in weeks but the iPhone has been a decent stand in for the few times we've ventured outside. I'll regain my footing this week and hope to be back to picture taking again :)

The cold weather has meant that the playground is a ghost town. Just the way I like it, and I think she agrees since she gets the sand toys all to herself:

We went on a walk, or rather she insisted that we take Winnie for a walk:

The rest of our hours were mostly devoted to leaf collection. And then leaf recollection, after the weekend storm ruined our first round of raking and blew the rest of the leftover leaves onto the ground. Fingers crossed for no more raking this season...it wasn't so bad the first time around--we made a fire and the weather was nice. Charlotte "helped" by collecting about two leaves at a time in her shovel from the neighbor's yard and dumping them onto the tarp.

And she managed to find time to get a manicure and pedicure from Grandma :)

I hope you're having a lovely week.

~Stacy