It’s All in the Timing

For those of you who have never potty-trained a child, let me give you a little recipe.  On how not to potty-train a child.

1. Add as much transition as you can.  Ride on lots of airplanes.  Stay in hotel rooms.  Change countries if at all possible.

2. Have another baby right in the middle of it.

3. Travel some more.

4. Try to out-will your 2-year-old into wanting to use the toilet rather than a diaper.

I could go on.

Needless to say, I will not be winning the potty-trained-her-child-fastest award anytime soon.

Ah, well.

As with other things in Macy’s life, I should have known that potty training was only going to come when she was ready.  Apparently, my timing was not her timing.  Even though Macy was doing really well, it was still like pulling teeth every time.  With all the traveling and adjustment with Selah’s birth, I was losing steam.

And so we waited.

I did have lots of encouraging voices in my life – my mother and mother-in-law being two of them.  They both reminded me that as soon as Macy was ready, she would just do it.

They were, of course, right.

One day, I just didn’t put Macy in a diaper to go outside to play.  I asked her if she would go to the bathroom before we went out and she did.  That afternoon, she had one accident (I think she forgot), but by the next day she was accident-free.

And now, she’s doing great. It’s like her little mind just decided – I can go to the bathroom by myself.  Why not?

Oh, my little strong-willed baby girl.