Potty Party

First of all, pardon me for my last potty related rant. Potty wise, we were having a bad day…week…couple of weeks. Having said that, here’s the latest edition of Wee-Wee-Weekly.

There is something to be said for buddies when working towards a goal. People have fitness buddies all the time-exercise buddies, diet buddies, etc. My sister, Rachael, has two daughters: Kate, who is just a couple of months older than Malia and Sabrina, who is starting first grade this year. These two have been Malia’s potty buddies. And having a potty buddy has been super fabulous for Malia. She does have three older brothers, but she doesn’t care a lick that they wear big boy underwear. She is, however, enormously impressed by the fact that Kate and Brina wear big girl panties.

Last week we invited Rachael and Kate to come have a mini birthday celebration with us for Malia’s birthday. Malia was really jazzed and asked if Sabrina would be coming. This is the conversation that followed:

Me: “No, Sabrina will be at school.”

Malia: “In her panties?”

Me: [trying enormously hard not to just bust out laughing] “Yes.”

Malia: "And Kate will go to school in her panties."

Me: [still trying to contain my glee] "Yes."

Malia: "And I will go to school in my panties!"

Me: "Yes!"

I was laughing in my head the entire time. I mean, going to school commando is not exactly a fabulous idea. Although it isn’t actually written in the school dress code, I’m pretty sure that underwear is required as part of appropriate school attire.

Speaking of school and the appropriateness of wearing underwear when going to the hallowed halls of learning, I think Malia is going to be in fine shape when school starts in two weeks. After my last potty related rant, we had a few hard weeks. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when the potty was mentioned. Then one day last week as I was helping Malia get dressed in the morning, she flat out asked for a diaper (not that she had been in one during the day for over a month) and I told her no. Then she asked for a pull-up (not that she had been in one at home for at least a couple of weeks) and I told her no. After some more complaining, she finally consented to the panties in spite of the fact that she really didn’t want to be bothered with the whole potty thing. Once she was firmly convinced that I was not going let this particular fight go, she must have just decided that she might as well give in because later that morning, she suddenly stopped, looked at me and said, “I have to go potty!” And so we ran to the bathroom and she was still dry and after she did the deed there was much cheering and clapping and many wahoos and she got to call Kev on the phone to tell him all about it. It was a big deal for both of us.

That seems to have been the turning point. She has been staying dry more consistently with each day and has figured out that she really can go by herself and doesn’t have to wait for us to tell her it is time to go or even wait for someone to go with her. She has always told me that she’s a little girl and not a big girl, but a few days ago she said, “I’m a big girl!! I growed and growed and growed!!” I think that gaining this particular skill has given her a sense of accomplishment.

And honestly, her being okay with even the idea of using the potty started the day we spent the whole day with Kate and Brina and one or both of them went with her every time she headed to the potty, which was about every 45 minutes at that point. And I’m really glad that Malia has some girl cousins. I think the potty training buddy system should be shouted from the rooftops. Because a potty party is way more fun than just going to the bathroom by yourself. In fact, even as adults women have a tendency to visit the ladies room in groups. (Y’all can’t honestly tell me that you and your besties never headed to the ladies on prom night to discuss how everything was going with all the gentlemen.) Honestly, I think I need to buy those girls a cookie…or some new princess panties. ;-)