The toddler and the toilet

Image by Gerard Stolk en route via Flickr

Babe who is still not even two and a half is now using the toilet on her own, often without a step stool or her special toilet seat. Although she is taller than average, it is still a long way up to the toilet seat. But somehow she manages to hoist herself up, shimmy herself into position and then jump off when done.

The latest development in this is that sometimes she likes to go to the toilet on her own. Mummy and daddy are pushed away and told “five minutes”. She then disappears into the bathroom and closes the door. If you should so much as open it a crack she shouts back “no no, go way”. A few minutes later she walks out looking very grown up and pleased with herself. She hasn’t quite mastered it all yet though, most of the time she forgets to pull her knickers (or knick-on as she calls them) and trousers up – and hand washing is almost always disregarded.

Time for regular toilet cleaning
Since being a full time working mum, regular toilet cleaning is one of those tasks that often slips, until it looks so minging that it becomes a public health hazard and the toxic waste clean-up team is needed. But I’m proud to tell you that I have mended my sloppy housekeeping toilet cleaning ways, that stockpile of special offer toilet cleaner is being put to good use.

Old before her time – long book reading sessions on the toilet

Babe awaiting her book

Babe, now 2yrs and 2mths, has already discovered the joys of sitting on the toilet and reading a good book. She is way too old before her time, but sadly not old enough to do this in peaceful silence on her own. I’m usually ordered to take a seat upon her pink Peppa Pig step stool and then beconned back and forth to keep the reading matter fresh.

When there’s a BIG job to be done this gal ain’t gonna rush. She is determined to give it the time required. I am thankful in many ways, because she has got past the stage of doing the ‘poo dance’ accompanied by wailing and moaning for an hour prior to the BIG drop.

And we’ve got past the stage when she would only poo in mummies hand – read my post called ‘mama the poopey catcher’ for more details on that if you dare!

The timing is often the crapiest thing, as it’s often just as the dinner has been put on the table. Then hubby and I have to take turns to be on toilet duty as our food goes cold, or we eat rushed so the other half can come eat before my rotten food has conjealed and turned into one solid block.

Roll on the days when she can slope off to the toilet and keep herself occupied. This is a parental job I won’t be missing when she’s flown the nest!

Pottyhood Part 12: Toilet Tastic

So babe is now out of the nappies and is on the home straight towards the goal of being fully toilet trained. But going out and doing anything anywhere seems to take twice as long, as it usually involves countless trips to the nearest toilet and some toddler protest flashing.

Off to town babe and I went on Saturday, and all the time we had to keep diverting off for a wee wee stop. I now have a good map of all the emergency loo locations within a short hop of any point in Exeter city centre.

There are times when I know she is crying wolf – when she has just had a wee within the last 15 minutes for example. So I gently tell her “no you don’t, wait a little bit”.

But she wasn’t going to take this for a satisfactory answer in Debenhams and proceeded to pull her trousers and pants down right in the middle of the thoroughfare to the till. It caused a good few laughs, as I dashed over to hoist up her clothing. But then still, after that we trundled off to the bog. This happened to be on the same floor, because we had just come from there. But no, no pee pee. Argh!!!!

I only wish she would be so diligent at home – it largely has to be me asking if she wants the toilet.

The Potette (click to find out more from a previous post) is not redundant though, it came in really handy when I was in an M&S changing room (I’m generally not an M&S clothing kind of girl except for some of the undies), when babe conveniently informed me of her toilet requirements.

So I whipped out the travel potty, put one of the rather expensive bags in it, and the good Little Miss produced. As she sweetly walked out of the changing room with the tied bag in hand, the shop assistant asked “what’s that you’ve got there, a bag of sweets”

I couldn’t resist by explaining that it wasn’t that exciting, she responded with “oh raisins then”

“No not even that good, its wee” was my reply.

That perplexed her!

*I realized that sounded a little odd, so I attempted a short explanation of how the Potette works. By this time all she could think about was…eeewww*

Pottyhood Part 10: Dry dry dry

Yeah hey, babe is back on the wagon and doing better than ever with the potty/toilet training. I haven’t had to catch a poo (read my mama catcher post here) or scrub accidents off the carpet in a good couple of days. In fact, babe has been in underwear and there have been no accidents since Monday evening – not even at night time.

I am writing this gloating post with caution
I know how quickly progress on potty training can back track, but please just let me enjoy the glory for a few more moments. Our regression over the Christmas holidays (and well into last week) was getting me down, we had come so far. In usual mama self reflection blame style, I was scorning upon myself for somehow not doing a better job – I know it’s not me with the nappy, but still.

At the weekend she began to pick up progress again in a big way
And she’s versatile too. Will go on the potty, the Potette (travel potty) with and without a bag or as a seat, and is also happy to perch on the edge of the adult loo seat. Mind you, she did nearly drop down it to join her number two the other night – I had been summoned to go get a book to read while she finished her ablutions.

As for night times
We have been dry for well over a week and that was only broken up by one small incident. But I remain cautious, at the moment babe has been co-sleeping with me pretty much every night, so I am totally adamant that she puts on her night time nappy before clamoring into my bed. I don’t want to wake up to any wet patches, which no doubt would infiltrate into the smallest edge of the bed that I perch on (she likes to sprawl in the middle and then keep encroaching on my personal space).

Babe hogging the bed with braclet, bunny and Duplo pig

So I ask you to send babe dry comments and thoughts, so that I don’t have to do anymore nappy washing.

Pleassse

Pottyhood Part 9: Mama The Poopey Catcher – Well Caught!

Image via Wikipedia

Last week, overwhelmed by aching bones as a result of sleep deprivation and the ‘almost flu’ virus, I decided that come babes bath time, I would join her for a soak in the tub. What I didn’t envision was what came next…

I’d added lovely bubble bath and dived in the water to enjoy just a few seconds peace, before the ‘all slipping and kicking’ toddler clambered in to play boats. Unable to detain her from the bubble fun, I hauled her in. Then spent a good few minutes to-ing and fro-ing her from potty to bath and back again upon the cry of “wee wee” I knew something was going on – she was brewing a special bath floater. I sensed the turtles head was going to make an appearance sometime soon. 

Just at the right time, my sixth poopey sense kicked in, as I reached round and caught it. She pooped in my hand – ugh! Well caught I thought.

The big mama catcher
She has done this a second time since, not in the bath at least. I knew it was coming, the refusal to put on the nappy had started, along with the trips back and forth to the potty and grizzliness. 

Luckily, due to my regular running nose, a tissue was always upon my person, so I was able to line the drop zone.

Fire in the hole at last
Last night just before bath, I knew it was a-comin. The grizzliness was in full swing and then all of a sudden she was getting ready to plop into my hand – at that very moment I scooped her up and put her on the toilet. Result, the babe landed the fire right in the hole – no messing, no scoopey out the potty, no cleaning a dirty nappy. This is the place I want us to be.

I didn’t really want to be sat next to her, hugging the toddler toilet duo for the following ten minutes, but it beat all the other options.

Toilet training
So we really are making head way with the potty/toilet training. I can say toilet training now too, as she has started to use the adult toilet – for the first time in a motorway service station on Christmas Eve. This is a bit of a bind though, as everywhere we go, as she now wants to visit the toilet, and not just once, time and time again. I can’t moan, its all progress from being the mama poopey catcher.

Pottyhood Part 7: Whoops She Does it Again

Potty training in your face!

Babe and I have been busy little bakers this last week, just check out my list in the blog post below. At the same time, we’ve been progressing on our pottyhood journey. Put these two together and you get some interesting results…what is that I can smell stinky? What is that dangling from your back-end stinky?

Have I whet your appetite to read on? Or maybe you’ll be thinking twice about accepting one of my cupcakes. If you feel the need to be informed about what doesn’t go into my food and can tolerate another poo story, please continue. Nope? Well stop now.

Baking and more
We were baking and babe didn’t want to wear trousers or a nappy. I’m cool with this, it means she can run and hop on the potty independently, that said,  it does entail a certain degree of risk. But I’m not averse to a bit of risk taking, so what the hell.

Babe was stood on the chair and some cake was undergoing the Kenwood whizzing treatment (she loves pressing the button on the food mixer). I roughly anticipated that she might be getting ready to emit the brown creation that she’s been working on over the last 24 hours, but my 6th senses are not that well honed on the timing bit yet. Anyways, I catch a whiff (in one of the rare moments that my sense of smell is working), and look round to see a big stinky dangler!

Quite relaxed (you know this is getting a bit routine for me), I pick her up and scuttle over to the potty in the hope that it holds strong. One foot away, and PLOP! On the carpet, grr!

How long is this potty training gonna take, was hoping to be home and dry for Christmas. Did you hear that sausage? Just a day to go?!

• Read more of our Pottyhood stories

Pottyhood Part 6: Out and About with the Travel Potty

During the busy Christmas shopping season, I cannot bear to take the buggy into town – it’s just way too busy, I rather use the baby carrier. The problem is, stowing things like a potty. Carrying a full sized chunk of pink plastic in addition to my toddler basics, and shopping is somewhat cumbersome to say the very least. I did it a couple of weeks ago and soon realized that there HAD to be a better way. Turns out there is and it comes in the form of a flat pack travel potty – this is IKEA furniture for the potty world.

The answer – a pottete
This is a wonderful invention which makes getting out and about with a little potty training person so much easier. You can literally whip it out of its bag, let babe do her business, bag it up and be off the crime scene in a matter of seconds – without the need for immediate disposal points (i.e. toilet). You can check out the full spec on Amazon if you’re curious.

I bought mine with bags  last week off eBay (the bags themselves seem to be quite pricey), and got it within a couple of days despite the bad weather. Over the weekend I had chance to give it a real test in a trip into town and over to the local supermarket and pet shop.

Imagine my excitement as babe shouts “wee wee” in the pet shop.
We scuttle over to the corner by the rabbit hutches, whip the beauty out and whalla, my little darling produces. We then break into our routine celebration dance of whooping and clapping, bag it up and we’re done.

Then it’s onto the supermarket to grab some basics to tide us over until we can get the car out of the snow. Yes I said snow, we’ve got even more this morning – there is no going anywhere today. Anyway, babe announces her wishes to go to the loo in the supermarket, so off we scamper to the loo – and nothing. This is usual, she often cries wolf – but I don’t know when that is, so we have to jump to action stations every time.

Then right down the other end of the store in the booze isle she pipes up “wee wee, potty”.  Argh blast, I’m thinking. There is no way I’m trawling through all these people right to the other end of the shop to realize that she went and did it in her nappy anyway. So out came the potette and my good little girl actually produced this time (luckily not the stinky brown stuff), but she made it worth my set-up efforts. 

You might ask if we got strange looks?
But I am now a master of mother/child discretion and made a nice little make shift privacy shield with the shopping trolley and my rucksack. Only those wanting a bottle of cider coming into close proximity would have caught onto what we were up too. That was until we gave the game away with our celebration dance – even one of the other shoppers joined in with a “well done” and claps.

I splashed out on the slightly more expensive version of the pottete that folds out into a toilet seat. I’m amazed that babe has already been successful with this too. I’m hoping that this won’t be in action for long, before babe gets the hang of dangling over the toilet seat. In the meantime, this will be my new best friend. The only problem, it’s slightly too large to go in my handbag and requires a separate bagging solution – hey ho, the hardships of motherhood

Did you like this post? Why not read some more in the Pottyhood series

The Zoo and Lots More Poo

It was babes second birthday this week – another typical day in the life of a toddler asserting her opinions, while enduring more challenges on the pottyhood journey.

We started off the day, with a few presents and cards, and explained to her that the delightful bike we’d given her a couple of months back was to celebrate this day – she didn’t care, she wanted to play ‘boats’.  

Chug chug chug…weeee!

 

 

Entering terrible two’s
She got the memo from her two year old friends.

“You are two, and with it goes the word ‘terrible’, you have an reputation to uphold – get to work girl.” 

 And with that, she got on with the job of running us ragged. At the same time, she was totally immune to my persuasive powers and deal brokering –  she was being as stubborn as an ass. So kicking and screaming I hauled her into the car seat, while hubby mumbled on, suggesting that my notion of going to the zoo was perhaps a bad idea.

Mama’s taking us to the zoo
Off we drove to Paignton Zoo (another must see destination if you’re holidaying in Devon), all the while the she was being a clingy nightmare and insisted on holding my hand for the full duration – or suffer the wails and the snot bubbles! So I figured a dead-arm from lost circulation as a result of twisting my arm round to the back seat while I sat in the front, was a reasonable price to pay.

Despite babe being clingy and insistent on me holding her hand or carrying her for the duration – we had a great time. We were cheated by the cheetah’s who were not out in their enclosure, but the lions, giraffes and elephant with their close encounters, more than made up for it. Despite taking the buggy, I carried babe in the baby Ergo for pretty much most of the time, and the buggy again was relegated to trolley duty.
 

Potty progress
Despite being out, a bit snotty and clingy, babe still used the potty throughout our trip – shame she didn’t before going in the bath with her new bath toys…

Just as she’d climbed into the tub, and I’d splashed all the new shiny CLEAN toys into the water, it dawned upon me that I’d forgotten to get her to have a potty moment prior. And in that instance a great big brown floater appeared alongside her, like a big brown walrus popping up for air. I’m accustomed to this practice and hauled her out onto the potty and quickly salvaged the boats.  After the clean up opp, we resumed, at long last she enjoyed a nice lengthy bath – an achievement compared to the 30 seconds of bathing that I’d been getting from her recently.

All in all, not a bad day. Here are a few more pictures:

Pottyhood Part 5: Carpet Crimes

It was bath time, and nappy-off-time. Babe was running around avoiding taking off her top and clamoring into the bath, so I let her quietly empty my bedside cabinet drawers again while I quickly rang my sister for a short  ‘what are we doing on Christmas day’ chat.

It started off like this:

ME “Hi B, how are you?”

B “Good thanks, and you?”

ME “Yeah, doing….o oh. Babe quick on the potty, sorry she’s crapped on the carpet”

Yes, my little potty training angel had pooped on the carpet after only a minute of putting her on the potty. The truth is I think she rather likes pooing standing up. Fortunate for me, the real messy end of it ended up in the potty.

My sister, not squeamish when it comes to poo-talk, had a running commentary of the experience. Of me trying to cajole babe off the potty and then gagging at the stink of the misplaced turd. Babe who felt rather proud of her part poo in the potty achievement, slipped back into the role of mother hen keeping her eggs warm. She was not keen on the idea of getting off the potty, and it was an excellent excuse to avoid going in the bath. Sheknows full well that I’m not going to tussle around with her when she’s sat on a stash load of potty deposits.

So there it was – our real dirty phone call.