Training Day

Spending the past few weeks watching the Olympics really had me thinking about all of the rigorous and persistent training that goes into getting someone to compete as an Olympic athlete. The hours and hours of effort and work to get those athletes to that point. It also made me realize that potty training is well named. It is training. It is hard, tireless work. And we are knee deep.

That's right, the Molloy family has taken a real plunge into potty training. Potty training involves lots of reminders, patience, persistence, and a delicate balance of support and encouragement without being overbearing and obnoxious. And feeling like you can never leave the house. And talking about bodily functions so much that you cannot remember the last time you had a conversation that did not involve some variation of the words "potty" "pee" or "poop". (It's a good thing we aren't going out much because no one would want to have a conversation with us right now!) Training, we have found, is all-consuming. We have been dabbling with the idea of potty training for many months. Elise been interested in it for a while now and has even successfully used the potty several times in the past six months. But we never really did anything proactive about it - no real training, I think in part because we were hoping that she'd one day say "I don't want to wear diapers anymore" and magically start using the potty all the time. You hear stories about that happening all of the time. Everyone I know has a story like that! So, as it is in our nature to be lazy, we were hoping that's how it would be with Elise.

About a week and a half ago, we went to pick up Elise at daycare and Panela (the head teacher in her class) mentioned in passing that Elise's pal and classmate, Sara Jane, was completely potty trained after just two weeks. We were amazed. Sara Jane is only a few weeks older than Ellie, and Sara Jane's mom and I were talking about the possibility of potty training just a month ago. What this means is, if we want Elise to be potty trained, we, like Sara Jane's parents, are going to have to actually do something about it and not just sit back and wait for it to magically happen. It boiled down to this: either we give it a real shot now, or we wait until the spring or summer so that we're not trying to potty train with a new baby in the house. After much debate and discussion between us and some of the teachers at daycare, we decided to go ahead and go for it. She is showing an interest now, and she might be inspired by Sara Jane, as well as another classmate, Andrea, who had also just started training.

The first few days did not go so well. Panela suggested having Elise sit on the potty every 30 minutes throughout the day to get her comfortable with sitting on the potty, and to help determine her regular schedule so we can anticipate when she'd have to go. Being the headstrong child that she is, Elise suddenly never wanted to sit on the potty (even though she loved doing it before she was asked to) and tended to pee the nano-second I put her diaper back on. So after one frustrating weekend, I was ready to give up. Then last Monday she went to school and suddenly the momentum was back! She came running out to greet me, telling me that she used the potty and wanted some Dora underwear (apparently she easily caves to peer pressure because Sara Jane and Andrea both wear Dora underwear). Turns out, she'd had a very successful day, wearing underwear all day at school and successfully using the potty three times! I immediately jumped on the Dora underwear bandwagon.

Since then, we have been making strong and steady progress. She is still not able to make it through nap or the night without an accident, but for the most part, she is averaging about 1-2 accidents (while she's awake) per day. I am so pleased with the progress she has made in just one short week! Of course I know that any kind of training is going to be on-going and yes, we will face setbacks along the way. But I also feel invigorated by Ellie's success and by the efforts of all of the many, many people involved in the training process thus far. It's amazing the overwhelming, beaming pride you feel for your child for doing something as simple as peeing on the potty. I totally know how Michael Phelp's mom feels...