1 Mother 2 Another

After a few months in a holding pattern,
Cora’s begun showing a renewed interest in potty training.
And I can’t decide if it’s simply maturity – or
devious cunning.


Cora’s been doing most of her pooping in the potty for a
while now. She’s discovered that a poopy diaper is rather
uncomfortable, and nine times out of ten she’ll tell me when
she needs to poop so as to avoid having that happen. Sometimes
she’ll be in the middle of a game or a social situation and
not want to stop and simply use her diaper, but by and large
she’s got the pooping down.

Peeing, though, is a different story, or
has been up to the past few days. Occasionally Cora will tell me
when she needs to pee, but usually she’s just as happy peeing
in her diaper. I think the reason is twofold: first, sheer
laziness. A wet diaper’s just not that uncomfortable, so I
suspect that if I went commando with her for a couple days
she’d be potty-trained pretty fast, since she’s a
rather fastidious kid. Unfortunately, I’m too lazy to do that
myself.


Second, the rewards for peeing in the potty simply aren’t
high enough to Cora. Every time she poops she gets a Hershey kiss
or Starburst, which is cause for great celebration in my house.
Peeing gets her a mere M&M or Skittle, and it’s simply
not been enough incentive.


But the last couple of days have seen a huge increase in potty use
for pooping and peeing, and I think I’ve figured out the
motivation. For one thing, my mom began taking a piece of candy out
of Cora’s candy jar every time Cora used her diaper and
started the “Gamma jar”. She had quite a stash of
Cora’s candy in her own jar, and it chapped Cora’s hide
to see all her candy in Gamma’s jar. Cora became determined
to win it back, and over the last few days has steadily
“earned” down Gamma’s stash until the jar was
empty yesterday afternoon.


But there’s another reason for Cora’s newfound love of
the potty, and it gets back to her favorite subject of all time:
Mommy. Cora’s learned that if she calls out for me during nap
or night-time because she needs to pee, I’ll rush in, hug her
to the potty, and stay with her until she’s finished. After a
few harried naptimes, I finally explained that she’s allowed
to leave her room on her own to go potty if she needs to, as long
as she goes right back when she’s finished. But Cora prefers
Mommy’s help, and will call for me until I come. She also
started getting up in the middle of the night – 2 a.m. to be
exact – for a pee break. I’m telling you, this child
will NEVER sleep through the night.


So far I’ve resisted the urge to yell, “Just go in your
diaper, for Pete’s sake!” when I’m tired and
cranky and just want to sleep. I’m gritting my teeth and
hoping the novelty of more Mommy time will wear off soon.
I’ve told her she can’t wear big-girl underpants until
her diaper is dry for an entire day, which so far hasn’t
happened. But I see her looking wistfully at the underpants already
set aside for her.


Soon Lord, soon.