Winnie the Poo

For the last few days Clara had been fighting, screaming and crying when it was time to change her diaper. Finally, I tried another tactic.

"Clara--do you want to use the potty?"

To my surprise, she said yes. I'm not even sure she knew what the potty was. However, we trotted off to the bathroom, took off her pants and diaper, sat her on the toilet for a split second until she wanted to go down. Then we went back to her room to put on a clean diaper. Not exciting, but no fights ensued. And she's wanted to return to the bathroom ever since.

So today we bought a potty seat. We almost had to wait, as we feared that our only options were a red, Rayo McQueen chair or a purple-and-pink princess chair. Finally we found a yellow and green Winnie the Pooh chair and even Mario preferred that over the other two options. (He HATES Winnie the Pooh.)

Later, he had clearly rationalized his acceptance of the Pooh chair when he told Clara, "and now you can poo on Winnie the Pooh." No regrets there.

This afternoon, Clara and I spent about a half hour at a stretch getting on and off the potty. Also, pulling her pants on and off. At this point, I'm pretty sure it's just a game. And while the only sign of potty training readiness she has shown is that she can walk to the potty (doesn't say pee or poop, doesn't seem to realize when she's peeing, can't pull her pants up or off), it is pretty exciting that she's interested. I'm just not expecting anything to happen at this point.

So if you need me this week, I have a feeling that I'll be in the bathroom.