The girl who cried poop

Every once in a while your child will throw you for a loop and start to have a developmental milestone without you anticipating it. Ever since the Kid started walking and talking (if that is what you want to call her somewhat intelligible Elmo-speak) we haven't had many obvious "milestones", so to speak. So much of development in the second year is cognitive, so big steps go unnoticed.

So, imagine my surprise on New Year's Eve when the Kid expressed a sudden and violent interest in using the potty. Not just flushing stuff down the toilet or barging in on me using the loo, but actually sitting on the seat and doing something productive when she is there. Hooray (or huh-yay, as the Kid says in the video below), right? Wrong!

We bought big girl panties as an incentive and proceeded in 30 minutes to clean up more pee from the floor than I have ever done in my life (reason #345 why Dr Drama doesn't have a dog). Back into pull-ups you go! Do you know what it is like going on a car trip with a potty training almost 2 year old? You officially become a slave to a child who has a bladder the size of a thimble and yells "poop" every time she needs to fart or if her stomach growls (I swear). Half the time you run to the nearest bathroom, only to have her already have used the diaper/pull-up or for her to dribble 12 drops of pee and say "all done!" very cheerfully. Seriously? I just cut off 3 lanes of Cincinnati traffic for this?

I am thinking that this might take a while or we are going to be needing a very large jar of M&Ms to make this work. I have always said that bribery (or reward systems - blah, blah) and potty training go hand in hand. Let the games begin!