Well folks, I think she’s there and Mike and I survived! Come Spring we’ll be gearing up to do it again with Wyatt! I hate potty training. In fact, I LOVE diapers. However, I like hitting milestones. I REALLY like hitting them on time. “On Time” is relative, though. So, in Heidi’s case she hit this milestone “on time” for her, not me. Light bulb moment, I know. Seriously though, it was by the skin of her teeth as she had to be potty trained before starting 3 y/o preschool. We sort of of did the “fake it till you make it” thing for the first month of school and fortunately, she only had one accident in that time.

We are very proud of her, as much or more than she is of herself. Heidi has NEVER been regular until the last 2 weeks. Sadly, her time to GO falls around 8:30 PM, when we are so close to being done with the bedtime routine and walking out of the bedroom door that you can just taste the quality alone time.

Tonight I thought I’d head her off at the trail. I put her on the Baby Bjorn potty in the den in front of a Dora show and told her she needed to poop before we went upstairs for bed. She happily sat down and tee-teed and waited for the poop, which did not come. Tonight really needed to be the night though, because Heidi has not pooped since Friday and it is TIME. So, we head upstairs and in the doorway of her room she says, “I need to poop.” Great. Here we go. Off to the potty again…sit, sit, sit…nothing.

We go back to her room, read her book, snuggle and just as I roll toward her to say goodnight she says, “I need to poop.” I asked her, “Heidi, do you need to poop or do you just want to get out of your bed?” “Poop,” she says. Though I doubt her motivation, I cannot tell her no on this. It is simply not done in potty training. Back to the potty we go. She starts playing. You know, singing, wiggling, making funny faces. A mild threat gets her back on track and within minutes she is making “THE FACE.” Bingo! Plop, plop, plop!

I am expecting 3 days worth if you know what I mean. I got 3 minutes worth. “Heidi, try to poop some more,” I say. “Nope, I’m done. I can have an ice cream party downstairs?!” Yes folks, if you poop on the potty, you get an ice cream party. What constitutes an ice cream party? 3 bites in a bowl. In the interest of getting her to bed quicker I tell her that I will bring the ice cream party to her, in her room. A frown. 😦  “Okay, I tell you what. If you poop some more, we can have the ice cream party downstairs.”

She puts her game face on, looks down and poops a good bit more. She is so excited. “Mommy, I poopeded! 😉 Lots! I can have an ice cream party downstairs!” I tell her we can and stand from my seat on the floor to help her clean up and wash her hands. Before she gets off of the potty she says, “Mommy, look at all of those poops! You should take a picture! Take a picture, Mommy!” I didn’t.

We head downstairs and she runs to our bedroom to tell Mike. She very enthusiastically tells him of her success and the ice cream party we are going to have. She says to Michael, “Gimme a high five!” and jumps up, hand outstretched and misses. Giggling, she goes in again and connects. Off to the ice cream party we go!