Rounding the Corner -- Potty-wise

Oh, thank Heavens! We are finally getting somewhere! It all started like this (which the parenting experts will most certainly admonish me for)...

On Thursday afternoon, I put Beth in underwear after her nap and spent the next 1 hour diligently asking her to sit on the potty. In fact, I put her on the potty three times. On the third time, she complained and said "no potty" with such vigor that I let her get up. She walked 10 feet over to the sliding glass door, turned and looked at me (right in the middle of my hands being dug into hamburger meat) and started to pee on the floor.

My first inclination was to throw raw hamburger meat at her but instead I ranted and stomped my feet while I washed the goo from my hands, then I ran over and grabbed her while the 2 cups of urine spilled onto a 10 foot swath between the door and the potty. Then I got mad.

Now, I know they tell you not to get mad a kid learning to potty but this was IT. Not only was she peeing on the floor but she was laughing about it. I went over to her potty jar (which is collecting coins for successful pottys so she can buy an adorable Elmo toy) and snatched a quarter out of it. "This is mine!" I said and dropped it into my pocket with great flourish. Then I took her out to the deck and hosed her off with the water from the faucet (which if it were me would have ticked me off but she thought that part was pretty fun).

I must have made an impression because she has asked to use the potty nearly every time since that little incident. Whew! At first I thought I had damaged her forever but now I think she got the point. And, if you know the women in my family...well, subtlety doesn't always cut it.