After being so excited that day 3 of potty training went so well, we certainly hit a rough patch. I do not care to mention or dwell on days 4, 5, 6, 7... of potty training. They were frustrating and often seemed to be one long accident. But, we seem to have turned another corner and things are going a little better.
Phoebe still refuses to say "potty."
She can say "tomato." But she won't say "potty." Here she is eating a lovely ripe tomato she stole from the garden. She's eaten nearly every tomato we've grown!
Luckily our neighbours down the street are having a tomato-palooza at their house, so they've delivered a couple batches of tomatoes to our place (so I'm not entirely without fresh garden tomatoes...I'll just never get to eat any that I've grown).
Anyway, she won't say anything to tell us that she needs to go potty, which is frustrating. She'll lock eyes with us and will us to read her brain. She'll suddenly start crying, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" She'll run to the potty herself while trying to wrestle her unders off. But she won't say "potty."
Still, she's been better about control the past few days.
She can be so stubborn about whether or not she wants to sit on the potty, which would be fine if she would sit on the potty when she needs to, right? So I keep telling her, "I'm happy to give you control if you will take control. But if you want to be in charge you have to...actually sit on the potty when you need to go because if you're just going to pee wherever you are, then...that's not being in control. I will stop telling you when to go potty when you start telling me that you need to go!"
I tell her these things because...toddlers are well known for being 100% reasonable people.
But she is getting better at being in control. Today she only had three partial accidents, meaning that she stopped herself from emptying her bladder completely so that she could get to the potty. So, we're getting somewhere.
For her part, Phoebe is keeping hydrated so she gets lots of practice needing her potty. Here she is drinking out of the garden hose:
And here she is drinking out of the watering can:
And I realize that's probably not 100% healthy for her, but she also drinks toilet water, pool water, and puddle water. I do my best to prevent her from drinking from poor water choices and actively encourage her to drink from sanitary water choices, but she pretty much thinks all liquids were made for drinking...and all solids were made for eating. I only just got her stop eating dirt and bugs and stuff—although, she put down one of the tomatoes she snatched from the garden yesterday and I was like, "Phoebe, you've got to eat that now! You're committed!" Unfortunately I didn't notice that she'd picked up a handful of wood chips when she put her tomato down so she was like, "Permission to eat wood chips?! Nice!" and stuffed the handful of wood chips in her mouth.
Anyway, I think we'll get through this potty training thing.
One of our potty uses today happened right during rainbow time, which was fortuitous. Phoebe had woken up from her nap and wasn't exactly excited about being told it was time to use the potty. But then we saw the rainbows (which she says "bay-boh," which sounds very similar to how she says "diaper") and I suggested that we go find her potty (it roves around the house throughout the day, following her from activity to activity...but not to nap time). She sat on the potty by the front door, did her business, and then got to play with the rainbows.
She said "hand" and "knee" and "elbow" and "head" as she made the rainbow light land on her arms or legs or whatever (but she still won't say "potty").
Here's Zoë blowing some bubbles for Phoebe outside after dinner this evening:
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