Saturday, July 11, 2009

My Car Is a Port-A-John

Being a former stubborn and willful child, now a stubborn and willful adult, there are times that I forget what it was like to be a stubborn and willful child. Especially when it comes to potty training.

M is still, for all intents and purpose, potty trained. We have the rare #1 accident. (one that I can remember in the last week) Most #2's are done in pull-ups at nap or bedtime (or when she wakes up and lets us sleep in so she can do her business). #2's caught early enough can be redirected to the potty with minimal cleanup. All is good. Except...

Except that after an unfortunate #2 at a restaurant right as our dinner arrived Friday, we are still having issues with public potties. It may actually have been made worse. By me.

Today we had a really awesome play date with Kay & May from Cribsheet over at Java Train (way cool kid friendly, you have to go) in St. Paul. The plan was to hit the zoo when we were done so that M could see giraffes in person. However, I failed to realize in promising of giraffes that we would need to potty given the time in public. We tried, we really tried, but my poor daughter was paralyzed by fear. We even tried the threat. If you don't potty, you can see the giraffes. It had no effect. She would rather go home.

Realizing that it would solve nothing to go home, I came up with an idea. A spur of the moment idea. I had seen the Potette before. However, as a stubborn and willful adult, I foolishly thought that we would never need it. My brilliant daughter could pee on a big potty and would never go back. Hah!

So with a trip to Target Store #1, I quickly assembled my own port-a-john in my trunk. One froggy potty, one package of size 1 store brand diapers, one package of dog poop bags (cheaper than the diaper ones), one container of disinfecting wipes. We has success on a parking lot median. Cleanup was easy. We saw giraffes! We saw zebras!

We still have an issue with the setup requiring the car. Because of that we won't be doing the Dragon Boat Festival tomorrow, since there are only shuttles to the site. Restaurants may also be a challenge since I doubt anyone wants to see my hauling a potty to dinner. We've talked about it and realized that the best thing for us to do for now is just accommodate her. Getting her to this level at her age is wonderful. Pushing her won't actually make any progress, it has to be, as it always has been, on her terms. After all, she is a stubborn and willful child, just like her mom.

1 comment:

Ms. Huis Herself said...

We have a potette, but do plastic store bags with diapers instead of the special refills. The nice thing about it is that it folds down small enough that you really could put it in a diaper bag (prolly not a purse unless you do a really really big one) and bring it along to the restaurant.

Also, I have some sort of travel potty seat that folds down into quarters that you can use to put over a big toilet seat. Think I got that one in Ireland though, so not sure where you'd find it here. THAT one is small enough to fit in a largish purse. Granted, that wouldn't help with the fear of auto-flushing...

BTW, yay M!!! My 2yo is doing some occasional pottying, but we're far, far, far from trained. That's ok - I hate the in-between, high-hassle stage! ;)