November 28th, 2007

I’m feeling a bit scatterbrained today. You know when you’ve consumed unsafe levels of caffeine and your fingers begin twitching, making you inadvertently type in-between letters on the keyboard, forcing you to Backspace for every word? Yea, Dunkin Donuts clearly scooped too many beans into the grinder today. I look like I could possibly be seizing over here.

Anyhow, despite my jittery state beneath my behemoth list of To-do’s, something wonderful has happened today! I mention in a previous post that we spent the past weekend in New Jersey with my brother, sister-in-law, and 3-year old niece Alex…who is… potty-trained. heavenly light shining above her head

We attempted to board the potty train with our daughter several months ago. Nothing too serious, but when we realized our daughter was holding her poop for full days until we returned home, we thought it was our ticket to a diaper-free promise land. Bzzzt! Wrong.

She is 100% poop trained now. Amidst her mid-afternoon playtime in our living room, her running in circle spells will suddenly halt, her expression will freeze, facial color becomes pastey, and I’ll hear a faint, “…mummy…poo-poo”. A mad dash for the bathroom quickly ensues as she clenches her tiny behind with all her might. A 2-year old Charlie Chaplin thrusting hips forward while hotfooting it the loo if you will.

In the poop department, we’re good. It’s the pee we’re having issues with. Although I would love to devote 20 minutes of every hour propping her onto the potty, mimicking sounds of waterfalls, my day does not allow time for this. I’m lucky if I have a chance to pee once during the day myself!

To my surprise, Ella halted her running in circle spell today to yell, “Pee!” A mad dash for the bathroom quickly ensued, but this time with knees bent and glued together with torso lurched forward while running. She’s managed to hold her pee until she’s fully propped onto the potty, stares at me with concentration, smiles, then pees. I find it amusing how her urinary forewarning is a string of facial expressions, always in the same order.

Each time she’s noted, “I pee-pee on potty like A-lix!”

I really, really wished we lived closer to my niece.

Could someone please loan me a potty- trained child?

I promise I won’t allow my daughter teach them strange behavior like running in circles…