So you wanna know how potty training's going?

So a few weeks ago I was in the basement switching laundry from the washer to the dryer and Taylor started yelling at me from upstairs, MOM! Come up here! And it didn't sound urgent so I yelled up to her that I'd be right up and continued separating my delicates. Well, by the time I had gotten up to the main floor, she had opened the fridge, pulled out a clementine and half peeled it to eat. And when I told this story to my sister, she laughed and said, So, she can peel fruit but she can't figure out how to use the toilet?

And this made me stop and think. Yes, Taylor-tot's a smart girl - She can put together jigsaw puzzles, she can color within the lines, she can count to 15, she can distinguish what an octagon is, she can name every Disney Princess and, now, she's pretty darn close to preparing fruit salad. Why haven't we mastered the potty training yet?

And it's not like I'm not trying here. I'm asking her every ten minutes if she needs to use the potty. And we're doing pretty good with number-two… In fact, she does a good job of telling us when she needs to go poo-poo. And when those words come out of her mouth, it doesn't matter what we're doing or where we're at, the mood changes to one of total urgency and we sprint to the nearest bathroom to do the job. And after a successful deposit, she gets a prize.

But it's number-one that has been the challenge for us when it comes to going in the potty, or even detecting that the urge is coming. But in the past weeks she has started announcing, Mom, I'm peeing. And she'll spread her legs and shimmy like a penguin to the nearest bathroom, where I'll set her on the potty and nothing will happen. Because she's already peed all through her pull-up. But I was starting to get encouraged just by her awareness of the fact that she understood she was peeing and the fact that she didn't like having it in her pants.

But this I'm-peeing song and dance started to get old real fast, especially because I'm almost seven-months pregnant and my sciatic nerve has been KILLING ME from constantly bending over to help her undress and lift her onto the potty. And so each time she made her announcement and cowboy-legged over to the nearest toilet, and each time we would go through the quick process of putting her on the stool only for her to say, I no have to go anymore, I would remind her over and over again, Honey. You need to tell Momma BEFORE you actually go pee-pee. And each time she would say, Okay… Now I get a prize?

And when re-telling our situation to other mom's, the resounding response has been, Just take those pull-ups away. Put her in big girl undies and she'll get it. Oh, that SOUNDS so easy. So we just take away the pull-ups and POOF! she's potty trained, huh? Why didn't we think of THAT?

So the following Sunday after church when we were home for the rest of the day and after we got her up from her nap I got out Taylor's super-fancy Sleepy Beauty underwear instead of her pull-up. And Miss T was pretty excited to put them on and parade around the house, showing us how beautiful she looked in her big girl undies. And, let me tell ya, that little booty in those little undies was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. I basically spent the next few hours chasing her around the house, pinching her buns and tickling her belly.

And then she peed all over them. And the floor. And then had a melt-down over the whole mess. But I cleaned her up and put on a new pair, this time one's that had Cinderella decals all over the booty. And then we continued our big girl undies party for the rest of the day, with Chris and I asking her every 15 minutes if she had to go to the bathroom again.

And even with constantly asking her about her need to pee, she once again had another accident that night right before getting ready for bed. And then had another freak-out. And after cleaning her up once again, putting on her jammies and, ultimately because it was bedtime, sliding a pull-up on her, I reassured her that accidents happen, it was no big deal and that we would try to wear our big girl undies again in the morning. To which she crossed her arms, shook her head and said, No, Mommy. I wear diapers like the baby. And I responded by saying, But Taylor, you're the BIG SISTER. You wear BIG SISTER undies, and the baby will wear diapers. And she grabbed my face with both hands and said very clearly, No, Mommy. I the baby too. I wear diapers like the baby.

Uh-oh. And here's where I throw my hands up in the air and say, What am I supposed to do with that? Because the next day, true to her word, she reminded me that she wanted to wear diapers like the baby. And instead of a traumatizing episode of me laying my giant body on top of her to wrangle her into some big girl undies, I just put the pull-up on her. As I have continued to do every day since then, because she keeps reminding me that, I the baby too, Mommy.

But pull-up or not, we're still working on doing all the business on the potty. And she's improving. And there are days that we make it all day with the same pull-up on, and then there are days where we have to change it several times. So it's not like we've totally given up, but lately she is adamant that she wants NOTHING to do with big girl undies. And so I just put a pull-up on her, and remind myself that she'll get there eventually. Because how many grade-schoolers do you know that still wear diapers? Exactly.

So. In short to the before potty training inquiry - It's driving me crazy, but we're working on it. But in the meantime, here's a picture of the 24-piece puzzle my little genius put together all by herself.