I think it's time...

When Anna was 16 months old we began a farcical journey in potty training. For 2 weeks she regularly peed and pooped on the potty. She asked to go and then went. I secretly held out hope that it would indeed be that easy - but I was skeptical. After those two weeks, Anna decided that she had zero interest in the potty and well, that was that.

We've had a couple of fleeting moments of interest in using the potty, but they were just that... fleeting.

I readily admit I've been lazy with Anna's potty training. With Emma being newly mobile in addition to her marathon nursing sessions - sitting in the bathroom with Anna for long periods of time as we wait for, umm, product, is more difficult than I care to admit. We tried the same thing we did with Julia, which was moving the little potty into the living room and letting her just use it in there, but Anna hates the little potty. She only wants to use the real deal. I guess that will help when it's time for the dreaded public potty times.

Santa brought Anna some Dora underwear in her stocking. She was not interested. That's when we stumbled across the potty training marvel that is the potty song and dance. This little bit of potty training wisdom was originally imparted to me by my father who cut out an article back when Julia was potty training about the success of a potty song and dance on someones child. We tried it with Julia and it worked better than stickers, candy and bribes combined. Apparently the same is true for Anna.

Julia's potty song was an upbeat, happy little ditty that resulted in dancing and prancing around. Anna's is a swashbuckling merry tune that is a peppy song sung to the tune of a "Sailor's life for me". It involves lots of "Ahoy matey" and "Argh"'s with our best pirate voices. Perfect for Anna. I think she's definitely catching on, as at least 2-3 times a day she asks to go to the bathroom. I think this weekend we'll begin the pull-up (the kind with the wet liner) full blown potty training with a diaper only for night.

oh - and a funny poop story...

Yesterday I sat down to nurse Emma who is sick with an ear infection. She had finally settled in to actually nurse when I heard that terrifying Velcro sound of the tape tab being pulled free from the diaper. Anna announced she had to poop. I asked her if she could wait for a minute. She said no. I told her to just poop in her diaper then. She then followed my instructions to the T. She had taken off her diaper, so she squatted over it and pooped.

I think she's ready...