I'm a nutcase

Lets discuss potty training. I know all of you non-moms really want to read this... too bad. It ruined my day yesterday and I'm going to vent:)

Ryann has been showing signs of being ready for PT for quite a while. Every book I read says to look out for certain indications that your child is ready: regularity (cannot bring myself to tell you what is regular), indicating she needs to go or have her diaper changed, ability to obey simple directions, desire to be like the big kids etc. etc. I'm sure there are some that I've forgotten, but the point is that Ryann has showed all of the above signs and I thought she was ready and it would take one day of intensive PT and she'd pick it up very quickly (I'm really not into the gradual PT). Even though she's only 2 I figured we should give it a shot - she's brilliant, you know, so it won't take long.

I think she did well - as long as I was glued to her side. We started out right away in the morning with underpants on and being confined to the kitchen (wood floor). I tried making her drink a lot of fluids, but she wasn't very interested at first. I explained to her that she would get 2 m&m's if she went potty on the potty and we began our play date. By noon I was so tired - I had gone up and down the stairs so many times (to get to the bathroom) that I felt like I had done another set of Swallow Cliff stairs. Mentally I was exhausted - I could not turn away from her or she would pee on the floor, every time she said she needed to go we would tromp up to the bathroom, I'd put her on the toilet and she would ask me 5 times, "What is this?" To which I would reply, "It is a toilet paper holder." And no - she wasn't asking about different things every time, it was ALWAYS the toilet paper holder. She would also tell me over and over, "I need that" and point to the toilet paper and I would tell her she could have some after she went potty. She went on the potty several times, but in the end I think we are going to take a break and try again another day. I found that she needs undivided attention and I really can't have the other girls around to do this (which is why I chose yesterday - Nora was on a field trip all day). I also think my expectations were way too high - I'm admitting that right now.

It was nice, though, to have some real quality time with my little Sweets. We colored (which I got too involved in and missed her telling me she had to go to the potty), we did puzzles, we chatted, we had snacks, we just hung out together one on one for a whole day. Its been a while since we did that - 7 1/2 months in fact. I can remember feeling like I was going to miss out on my Ryann-time right before I had Georgia. I was actually hoping that the baby would stay in for a little longer (I was, I swear) so that I could spend more time with Ryann without being distracted by the new baby. Turns out I was right.

I'm happy that she's getting bigger and older because bigger and older in our family translates to going on errands with mom by yourself or doing something with daddy by yourself. Up until recently it was just too big of a pain to bring her with us on those kinds of things (it was that way with Nora, too when she was that age), so she would have to stay home while Nora came. She's a fun little kid with a really fun personality. She lights up my day with her monkey-ness and her goofiness. We ended the day with a bath and she poured water on Georgia's head and made me smile. She got excited about putting lotion on and sat on my lap while we watched Good Eats. Those are the important things. Her husband can potty train her.