Never a perfect time to start

I've wanted to start this blog for a while, but I guess I've been waiting for the perfect time to start.  Life has taught me a lot and recently I've learned that there is never a perfect time to start so you've just got to jump in and kick until your head is above the water.

And that is how I'm going to start talking about potty training.  June has been growing out of her medium sized cloth diapers and Ruben has quickly proven that small diapers cannot contain whatever he's shooting into them.  So I had been toying with the idea of potty training even though June wasn't showing all of the "signs of potty training" that different books and websites talk about.  She occasionally woke up dry, indicated she was wet shortly after going, and wasn't petrified of the potty chair we purchased for her months ago.  So she wasn't showing all of the signs yet, and it was a cold spring and I had been hoping to potty train outside once it got warm so I was waiting for that.  And VBS was coming up and that would interrupt any kind of schedule I had.  And the excuses kept flowing.

Finally, Karl said, "so what are you going to do this week?" With all those excuses swarming around my head, for some reason I answered, "I think I'm going to potty train June."  What was I thinking.  I haven't read any books on potty training.  I haven't thought through how I might tackle this project.  I've been waiting for the right time to present itself.  But now I had said it outloud so I was committed.

We started by reading some kid's potty books from the library.  June's favorite was the Pirate Potty book that included the chant, "Fe, diddle-de dee.  I've got to go pee-pee.  Fe, diddle-de do. I've got to go poo-poo." Yep.  I've sung this chant is just about every public bathroom in the QCA.  The first week went well.  Wait, I lie.  The first week was hard - I didn't realize that I was potty training myself.  I finally realized that if I could just keep track of when she peed and pooped and how much she ate and drank I could somewhat predict when she would need the potty.  The next week was VBS and the two weeks after that were spent at the Lake.  So needless to say, we've done a lot of laundry.  However, most days I would consider June potty trained.

Today was not one of those days.  After a morning trek to the Y, things fell apart.  June had an accident near the computer, had an accident nearly on the couch upstairs, lunch, nap, woke up wet from nap, play, SUCCESS ON THE POTTY, Family museum with Dad, start pooping in swim suit, SUCCESSFULLY FINISH POOPING ON THE POTTY, home, accident squatting with a toy, dinner, DVD in player, pee on the couch, watch movie, bedtime, cry in bed that you have to potty (great stall tactic), SUCCESS ON THE POTTY.

After a day like today, I'd love to say, "You know, maybe she's not ready to be potty trained yet.  Let's start again when the timing is better," but I know how that will go.  June will be graduating 1st grade with diapers still on because there's never a perfect time to start anything.  So just keep swimming.