The Sweetest Little Girl

Tonight I had a few friends over to scrapbook and Arwen had a tough time going to bed. She wanted to read lots of books and wanted to know what I was going to be doing downstairs with the other Mommies. About ten minutes after putting her down, lighting her stars, turning on her moon and leaving her room, she comes downstairs with one Minnie Mouse slipper on one foot and tells me she needs her other slipper before she can go to bed. The two of us go upstairs together and find her other slipper in bed hidden beneath a princess blanket. I bid her goodnight again and head back downstairs to work on the scrapbook I haven't seen in well over a year. I look at the pictures of her from two years ago and wonder with a small tear in my eye who that little girl is in that picture. Before I can recover from the emotion a three year old walking into the kitchen brings me back to the present. She looks around at the faces around here. Faces that she sees a lot, but is probably unsure of since they do not have toddlers attached to them at the moment. She finds my face and says, "I have to go potty" So we head upstairs together again. Now as soon as we get into the bathroom, she tells me she is bothering me, so I have to stand out in the hallway.(Yep, she is bothering me) I peek at her through the door – you can do this with your own three year old – and wait until she's done, pretend like I'm just checking on her, knock on the door and come back in. I ask if she went potty; like I didn't know from peeking, and then we head off into her bedroom. Now you may ask what makes all this so sweet…besides the fact that it is all really sweet. When we get to her room, she tells me "I was looking for a present for you everywhere. In the play room, in your room, in the bathroom, and I can't find a present for you." Now I'm starting to think to myself, as us parents do too often, you are just trying to keep me here a little longer because there are people downstairs. And though I'm not showing it yet, I am starting to feel that little sense of impatience coming on. She continues telling me that she wanted to find a really special present for me but couldn't find one in all the places she looked. Then she grabs Pablo off her bed and says "Here, you can have Pablo." She is the sweetest girl I could ask for. Sure she wanted a little extra attention because she knew I had some extra to give since I was giving it to others that were downstairs. But I got a very special gift, not just Pablo, but a sweet thought from my little girl that my pictures are showing is growing too fast! Now Pablo and I must head to bed – I do fear a small meltdown if he is not found in bed with me in the morning!

Arwen potty training day 1

Potty Time Day 1
Arwen has been talking about her poop for quite some time now, so back in December I decided to buy her a Royal Potty. As soon as I sat her on it she cried. Santa was on his way, so we decided to give her a break with the potty and wait until after the new year to introduce it to her. For a few weeks I asked her about her potty, she'd get real excited and run over to it, put one foot in the bowl and stand in it. This isn't going to be easy, is it?

Time for another try. I start by telling her when I am going to the potty. I sang songs, I did the potty dance and get her attention enough to come into the bathroom with me when I went. Once she was in the bathroom, it became a different story. Suddenly, the cat food or the tower of toilet paper was more exciting than watching Mommy pee.

So I decided I would wake up bright and early today, get showered before she woke up and the moment I heard her awake, I would begin Operation Potty. I bought a training seat to go over the toilet in her room since the Royal Potty is only good for standing. Promptly at 6am, my alarm clock went off and then again at 6:07am...like clockwork. And like a woman that hasn't depended on an alarm clock in almost 2 years, I rolled over again telling myself five more minutes never hurt anyone. Somewhere around 6:30am, I heard Arwen playing. I had two options. Get up, shower and just let her pee in her diaper, or get her up, and sit her on the potty with both of us only half awake. I opted to wait until I had at least one cup of coffee and she was a bit happier.

Somewhere around 9am, I was feeling a bit awake and had to pee a bit myself, so we came up stairs and talked about the potty. I asked her if she had to pee in the potty. And she emphatically said "YES!"

Well, this is going to be easier than I thought. So I brought her favorite potty book into the bathroom, took her sleeper and diaper off and sat her on the potty. She didn't try to put her foot in it and stand up, but she did want "Down-da" a few times before she got really comfortable. I read "The New Potty" to her about five times and then asked if she needed to pee in the potty. Again a very
enthusiastic "Yes!"

Now she was reading the book and I was telling a story about a little girl names Arwen that relaxed, read a book and then peed on the potty. A couple of minutes later, she was ready to get down. When I asked if she needed to pee on the potty, she said "no"

I'm not going to push it and at this point I was hoping for a bit more coffee. Note to self, bring more than one book into the bathroom with you next time.

So she goes down for a nap. And when she wakes up, I rush into her room, thinking I will strip her down, put her on the potty and she will pee!
As soon as I picked her up, I felt the warmth spreading across her diaper. Too late. Off to lunch.

In the afternoon, I reintroduced her to the Royal Potty. Every time she stepped in it and stood there like king of the throne, I picked her up and played a game called let's sit on the potty. I kept her naked for about an hour and decided that it might be best to go back upstairs where the potty is on the toilet. She can't climb that and seems to enjoy sitting on it.

Upstairs, she sat on the potty, we read a book, played with a duck and she told me YES a few times when I asked if she needed to pee and then she wanted her milk. Immediately thoughts of liquid producing pee ran through my head. "Let's go get your milk," I said; and off we went. I was going to give her about ten minutes of holding her milk cup, drinking it and playing before I asked the question again. A few more sips and the question would be flying out of my mouth.

That's when Arwen said "Pee pee potty!" and peed on my bedroom floor!

We got dressed and went on a few errands. There will be a day two!