Potty Un-Training

Thanks for all the tips and positive thoughts regarding the potty struggle. This afternoon I put a disposable diaper on Sophia (she was totally willing). I told her that mommy needed a break from this potty thing, and I tucked her potty seat in the corner of the bathroom, out of sight. She spent the next hour taking her diaper off and pretending to pee on imaginary potties throughout the house. I kept putting the diaper back on her and told her she just needed to wear it. At one point when I was in the kitchen, I heard, "Mommy, I need some help." She was in the bathroom. She had climbed up onto the potty sans stool and potty ring, had peed, and couldn't reach the toilet paper because she was balancing by holding onto the sides of the seat. I helped her wipe up and then she ran into her room, whipped out a pair of training undies, and put them on. She said, "I'm tired of that diaper. It is bugging my legs, and it keeps falling down."

There was this little flutter of excitement, where I thought, "Maybe this is it. Maybe all she needed was for me to totally give up." I let her wear the undies, hoping she'd keep going on her own. Silly Mommy...for the rest of the afternoon she peed in her undies and didn't tell me and didn't make any attempt to care. I guess we've created a neurotic potty monster toddler who is obsessed with the idea of potty but refuses to fully embrace the concept.

So, for the time being, I'm done. Sophia is wearing a diaper to bed tonight and will be wearing one tomorrow, whether she likes it or not. The undies will be removed from her drawer. And all talk of potty will cease (on my part, at least). I just need a mental break for a while.

I will wrap this up with a happy thought: At least 12 times every day (and I am not exaggerating), Sophia makes little cakes out of play-dough or paper or toys and sneaks up to me with this excited little whispery voice saying, "It's your birthday, Mommy!" Then we sing "Happy Birthday" together, I blow out the candles, and we say, "Yaaaay!" Usually I'm turning either 1 or 7 (sometimes 5). And there is typically a present wrapped up in a napkin or a tee-shirt. Upon opening the present, I'll find something like a kitchen spoon, or my cell phone, or one of her dollhouse people. It's sweet and fun, and really so much more important than potty.