Its Potty Time

The date was marked on the calender: Memorial Day Weekend. That's when we were kicking Margaret Mary's diapers to the curb and hitting this potty training thing hard. We had been talking about the potty for a couple of months now and Margaret Mary already had a little potty and some training pants. I checked out books and movies from the library about going potty for her to learn from and put them in the corner of the living room, ready for our big weekend. But then MM got sick, and then she had a painful diaper rash the size of Texas on her bottom. The poor girl was in so much pain every time we changed her diaper. We decided she needed to be naked to let the rash air out, and thus, our potty training plans were pushed a week early. When we told her that she could be naked all the time IF she went potty, the girl was game.

Margaret Mary is doing so well! It has been six days since we started training and she has had very few accidents. At home, she goes when she needs to without any prompting from us (unless we are trying to go somewhere), and when out, she is getting better and better at getting to the potty on time. Potty training came at a great time for her. She is in the "myself" age which causes a lot of tantrums. She WANTS to do things herself, but when she tries, gets really frustrated. Potty training has worked perfectly because she is finally succeeding at doing something "big" (her favorite adjective) herself. She even has a new smile that has come from potty training (which has been my favorite part of the whole process). It is a subtle, little, proud of herself smile that is all lips, no teeth. It melts my heart. She also has a potty dance (when she goes in the potty) where she spins and goes crazy dancing on our carpet.

I was totally unprepared for how grossed out I would be at the whole process. I can change a poopy diaper that has exploded all over the body without a gag, but as soon as I see the turd in her little potty I start dry heaving! It is intense. I was also unprepared for how grossed out I would get by all the pee pee and poo poo songs and movies. I'm an adult right?!?

It has been wonderful to watch my baby girl start to live life as a "big" girl. She knows what she wants, wants to "help mama" do everything, plays pretend by herself, and even helps out with Henry; she is amazing. Margaret Mary is very adventurous as well. With everything she's doing, she wants to go "higher!" and "faster!" She loves to dance, loves to sing, and still LOVES it when her Papa comes home from work. She sings lots of little songs about life. When bringing home some supper from the store her songs are about "mama henry chicken, me big chicken!" and when singing at home "henry toys play me". She is talking a lot too in four and five word sentences. I love what her little mind comes up with. One of my favorites is when we put her to bed at night. We ask her "do you want Mama or Papa to rock you?" She, determined NOT to go to bed, comes up with an answer. "No mama rock me, no papa rock me." Margaret Mary is even helping me teach Henry sign language, which has been really funny to watch, as she has mastered an exact replication of my facial expressions, pitch and tone when talking to Henry. He will be watching her dance and she will stop, get down eye to eye with him, make the more sign and ask him "more? more?", give him a second to answer and then go back to dancing.

She also imitates everything. Today I yelled out "bye Babe" to Jason as he left for work and Margaret Mary called out "Bye Babe!" as Jason shut the door. Love that girl.