After we introduced little EC to the concept of pottying some months ago, it was a hit-and-miss thing whether she’d give us the chance to see that she needed it before it was just diaper-changing time. We even gave it up entirely in September while we were traveling, because who needs that drama? But having returned home and to a relatively normal schedule, we gave it a try again.

From the beginning we had used the strategy of sitting her down at the first sign of “necessity”, reading her books, and otherwise distracting her until she actually pooped. This was only marginally successful, because she would eventually tire of sitting there, or declare she didn’t need to go, or we’d get tired of yet again reading the same books over and over while waiting for her. That was just too frustrating all around. So instead, when we got back, I just started taking her clothes off at the first signs, and otherwise letting her continue running around—on the one condition that she stay off any absorbent surfaces like couches. It turns out that she has a fairly good sense of when things will go down, and for one reason or another (our previous disappointment a couple times that she’s let drop on the floor?) knows that she has to be properly positioned for the event. So after four or forty minutes—I never can predict—she’ll start panting, dancing, and running for the bathroom…and you know how the story goes. A couple times she has peed on the floor—she hasn’t figured out that part of the package yet—and once she only half made it (“hovering” already, at age two), but otherwise she has a clean record. And as of now, I haven’t changed a dirty diaper in a week or more.

So in a case of “second thing’s first”, we seem to be getting this part down, and then we’ll move on to number one. The training pants just showed up in the mail today.