Gracias, Dora

Potty training with Anna has been, shall we say, a "challenge."  She knows perfectly well how to do it, in fact we started trying it about 6 months ago and thought we were making progress.  Then one day my strong willed child (her teacher's words...I just call her "stubborn") just up and decided it was more work than it was worth and went back to diapers.  I have been buying the ginormous boxes of pull-ups at Costco ever since and living in hope.  My hopes rose slightly when she started preschool this year--surely, I thought, the peer pressure would make her give in.  But alas, no.

Then a couple of weeks ago we had our first progress meeting with her teacher.  Doing great developmentally, do we have any goals?  Yes, I answer!  Potty training!!  The teacher gave me a funny look and asked "Does she not go on the potty at home?"  Becoming suspicious, I said "Er, no.  Does she go here?" (I should add, they have the cutest little potty in her classroom--looks just like a regular fully-piped toilet that got put in the shrinker machine).  Her teacher assured me that she almost ALWAYS goes in the potty at school--in fact, she's 80% there. "Very interesting," I say, as I begin plotting my revenge.

Then midterms hit and I didn't have time to execute any of my devious plans, but this week, I set to work.  Now that I knew she could and would do it, the will power of the mother of the strong willed child kicked in.  I tried a few different things at first--rewards (gummy bears for going in the potty, promising treats at the end of the day if the diaper was dry, etc), guilt ("but Mommy doesn't like to change diapers, it makes me sad"--I know, I know)...and then it hit me.  Inspiration!

Anna: "Where did Dora go?" (We used to get her Dora pull-ups, thinking they'd be an incentive, but as the months wore on I gave up and switched to the cheaper Costco princess ones instead.  Something about pooping on a princess always makes me smile anyway.)

Me: "Dora went away.  She got tired of you pooping on her, so she went to your big girl panties."

Anna: "Is she coming back?"

Me: "Not until you promise not to pee or poop on her.  It makes her sad.  And mad.  But she said she'd come back if you go in the potty.  Want to try it?"

Shameless, I know.  But seriously folks, I will take anything I can get at this point.  And how did it go, you might ask?  She wore her Dora panties yesterday and today...yesterday, she did great with the pee, but there were two pairs of poopy panties (insert more "you make Dora sad" conversations here).  Today...NO ACCIDENTS!  Now given, she opted to just not poop instead of poop on Dora...a little bit of a backfire there, hence why I just ordered "Everyone Poops." But, today is officially her first day of going a whole day without any accidents.  There might just be hope yet...we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Muchos gracias, Dora.  I owe you one.