L is for Lily!

Potty Training

Lily and I are now on day three of house arrest. Yep, that's right, we're potty training. We haven't left the house since Friday night. I've actually assisted in the potty training of many children in the past eight years--they just happen to be children with autism. No matter, I thought. I'll just use the same techniques we used with those kiddos with Lily. I've been prepping Lily for about two weeks telling her that when summer came there would be no more diapers. "What happens when summer comes?" I'd ask, expectantly. "No more deepers!" she'd answer excitedly.

Day one we woke up, took off her diaper and put on her underpants. After she had been up for about an hour and a half I took her to the potty. And there we sat. And sat, and sat, and sat. Husband went to the store to get provisions for breakfast. We still sat. Husband returned and made breakfast. We still sat. Breakfast was ready. "Come on and eat before it gets cold!" said Husband. I thought about cold eggs. Yuck. I thought about the fact that Lily hadn't peed in three hours and had been sucking down copious amounts of chocolate milk, juice and ice water. Hmmm...At Husbands urging, Lily and I emerged from the bathroom and went to eat breakfast. Maybe she'll just tell me when she has to go, I thought. Right. Two minutes later she peed in her highchair while happily munching a bagel. I took her to the potty, glaring at Husband. I cleaned her up, changed her underpants and took her back to breakfast. "Lily, when you have to go pee, just tell Mommy or Daddy, okay?" I urged. "Okay!" she replied. Ten minutes later she was still finishing breakfast and peed again in her highchair. "Uh-oh!" she said. "I peed in my highchair!" Yes. Yes you did, I thought, glaring again at Husband. Wash, rinse, repeat. About an hour later, Husband took her to the potty where she peed pretty much on command. For the remainder of day one she had many other successes including a poop (I never thought I'd be so excited about a poop before) and two more accidents. Day two she had one and a half accidents. Here we are on day three and so far she's had zero accidents and two pees and a poop. Wooo-whoo! See how exciting my life has become?