Initial Forays into Potty Training
Before we left for vacation I got this wild idea to put Norah on the potty and see what happened. I fully expected nothing to happen besides her looking cute sitting on the potty like a big girl. I was not disappointed for lo, she did indeed look cute. We were getting ready to take a shower so she was naked, on the potty, giggling and kicking her feet and reaching for the toilet paper. Norah, like most other babies, comes into the bathroom with me every time I go so she has a general idea of what toilet paper is for. By that I mean, she knows how to unroll it and put it on top of my legs. So while she was sitting on the potty she kept reaching for the toilet paper and I kept saying “Norah, you can only have toilet paper if you actually do something.” Relentlessly, she kept reaching. The shower was running so I was about to pick her up when I saw it…The Poop Face. I held my breath, waited a minute, and sure enough SHE POOPED IN THE POTTY!
I ran out to the living room and yelled at Rusty SHE POOPED! SHE POOPED! and then ran back into the bathroom in case Norah decided to play with it or something. I cleaned her up and we showered and then ten minutes later she pooped in her diaper again. Ok, so the potty pooping was probably just a fluke, a case of blind good-timing on my part. But still, the next day I thought I’d try again.
I sat her on the potty and stupidly, this time I gave her some toilet paper before she did anything to earn it. She apparently has a better idea of what it’s for than I earlier thought because before I could stop her she reached down between her legs and starting dipping the toilet paper in the toilet water. So, she has a better idea of what its for, but she’s still not totally clear. And guys, I do not clean my toilets near often enough so basically Norah was playing in dirty bacteria poop water.
I swooped her up off the potty and ran to the sink to wash her hands as fast as I could because I just knew she was going to stick those poop water hands in her eye or her mouth and we’d end up with some kind of terrible disease that only comes from poop ingestion and then my pediatrician would know that I let my baby play with poop and don’t wash her hands, which I DON’T! So I sat her on the sink to clean the germs (on Rusty’s side of the sink, hehehe) and washed her hands until her skin was pink and disease bacteria free and the while she’s going “Gahh! Gahh! Gahh….” looking longingly toward the toilet and her precious pieces of toilet paper. The little sicko.
I picked up my clean handed baby to put a diaper back on her because clearly we are not ready for potty training and then I realized, too late, she’d already peed all over the counter. A bathroom fiasco in line with the time she flung a ball of orange Dorito poop dangerously close to her own head while I changed her diaper at school.
So yeah, maybe we are not ready to potty train. Norah’s interest in the potty seems to extend no further than eating graham crackers while sitting on the pot, repeating “cracker!” like a little naked parrot.
–Sadie
OMG! We just got our little boy a potty when he woke up totally dry and naked from the waist down after taking off his own diaper. He *loves* the potty. What exactly does he lurve about the potty? He adores walking around naked.
So he is his father’s son.
The stories I could tell about my son are stories that he would be mortified to have broadcasted on the World Wide Web. I can picture it now: he’s 20 years old, hanging out with some friends who are all googling each other names, and they find my musings. Yeah, I don’t think I’m that mean — but if he decides to join a gang or rob a bank or something, I’ll spill every evil detail.
Potty training sucks. Better luck next try!
Omg Meredith, I didn’t even think about that! Poor Norah…
Very funny/sad story — the chance poop on the potty was awesome … the playing in the toilet water and peeing on the counter less so. Apparently these are the joys and pains of potty training (still to come in our house …)
I can’t remember how old Norah is, but my 18-month-old is currently obsessed with the potty. My 3-year-old son finally potty trained over the summer (spurred largely by the excitement of pottying in the camground toilets), which meant lots and lots of time spent in the bathroom. Of course, she’s a little confused about the process and likes to announce “potty!” and then march over to the toilet and lift her shirt and lean against it, which comes up to about her armpits. But she also really likes to sit on it–hundreds of times a day. So far, it’s been mostly clothes-on, because I get tired when I think about taking off all her clothes that often. But maybe I’ll bite the bullet and start doing it for real. Hey, if she wants to potty train now, I certainly am not going to argue.
If it’s any consolation, she is also obsessed with splashing in the toilet. I keep trying to train the boys to flush, close the lid on the toilet, or close the bathroom door–or any combination of those. But I’ve had those same “she’s going to get the horrible baby-hands-in-the-toilet disease” thoughts. And she’s snotty and crabby, but I don’t blame that on the toilet.