A Potty in My Kitchen

Yes, there is a potty in my kitchen. No I am not trying to be funny. It’s not a “party,” it’s definitely a potty. Trust me, potty training the Big One is not a party.

I have really tried to take a laid-back approach to the potty training thing. Everything that I have read says not to push your toddler, to let them go on the potty when they are ready. So for the most part we have left it alone. Trust me, we have tried in the past to “force” issues with the Big One and it just doesn’t work.

So recently she has been showing definite interest in going on the potty. Like I said I don’t push her, if she wants to go on the potty great. If she wants to continue on in a wet, stinky, cold diaper more power to her.

It started a couple days ago, she told me she needed to go, so we got her pants and diaper off and she took her seat on the potty in the bathroom. Now here is where we are struggling. Sometimes she pees immediately upon sitting on the potty. But most of the time she sits and sits and sits. Occasionally she groans a bit to “push the poopies out.” I’m not really sure where the groaning and grunting come into play. I have perfected the art of pooping without an audience so she didn’t get it from me. {yes, I still pee with an audience but I have figured out the timing on the solo poop.}

Anyway, after a couple minutes of sitting, she realizes that she still has her shirt on so that must be the problem. Somehow she’s decided that in order to go on the potty she needs to be completely naked. Apparently it helps to get things flowing. Well, technically she is not completely naked she is still wearing her blue socks.

So we take her shirt off and on this particular day, I tell her that I need to go start making dinner. Not wanting to be alone in the bathroom on the potty, she stands up, picks up the potty and follows me into the kitchen.

She says she needs to “see mommy and <Little One>” while she tries to go potty. So there we were, Little One in her high chair, me cooking dinner, and the Big One sitting with her blue socks on in the middle of my kitchen.

By now she’s been on the potty for close to an hour {yes, you read that right}. When Suddenly Big One jumps up yelling triumphantly, “I peed… I peed… I peed.” So I stopped the dinner prep to high-five and jump excitedly with the Big One as we celebrated the pee in my kitchen.

Unfortunately I think we have set a precedent. Big One has been carrying the potty with her from room to room to room since that one day. She apparently doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to pee in the potty. I’m sure the “experts” will say that we are somehow scaring her for life by letting her walk around naked, carrying the potty for hours, but I don’t know what else to do. I certainly don’t want to squelch her excitement about going on the potty