Sort of. I have changed approximately 3 pull-ups in the last few days. No, no. S. has not finally decided that using the potty at home is the coolest thing in the world. I'm having her change her pull-ups herself. She takes off her shoes, her pants, her pull-up, cleans herself up and puts a new one on. I actually got the idea from a passing comment a friend made last week when I was going on about my potty training woes. She just started telling me about different things that her friends had done to potty train their children. And one of them made her daughter change herself. It didn't register right away as being something that we should try until a few days later, I found S. sitting in her pink rocker chair- she was soaked, her chair was soaked. And she was wearing a pull-up. She wasn't bothered the least bit by it, either. This surprised me because I had changed her just a few hours earlier but this child pees more often and in greater quantities than I've ever even heard of!
As I was shampooing her chair (for the fourth time that week- perhaps we should find chair covers?), I thought about how much this sucked. I'm shampooing furniture whether she's in pull-ups or panties- plastic or otherwise.
Then it hit me.
If she doesn't want to pee in the potty, or tell me when she needs to be changed- she'll just clean up and change herself, dammit.
So, I took a brand-new pack of pull-ups, put it in the cabinet underneath the sink. I showed S. where the pull-ups were, and explained to her that from now on, when she needs a new pull-up, she has to come into the bathroom and take care of herself (I still help with the poopy ones though. I'm afraid poop will end up all over the bathroom floor if I don't, but luckily those don't happen too often)
There was a little resistance the first time. The getting off not such a big deal. It was the putting a new one on that was the problem. It took about ten minutes for me to get her to do it. She peed on the carpet in the meanwhile. Lucky me.
But since then, it's actually been going pretty well. I still have to ask/tell her it's time to be changed. But she heads straight to the bathroom where all this business is being done now and did what she needed to do. She even put a new one on immediately and without a fight! Yipeeee!
And here's the kicker- she was so proud of herself!
I'll take what I can get.
Another thing I did was copy a picture of the huggies pull-up designs from their website. I typed "S.'s pull-ups" on top and printed it out at about 6x6 image. Then I taped it on the cabinet door which led the way to her pull-ups.
Oh, how she loved that!
This last time I shuffled her into the bathroom, she ran! Then sat on the bathroom floor and ooo-ed and ah-d over this lovely picture of the princesses which also adorned her pull-ups. Then she changed herself and ran back into the living room. The whole thing took less than five minutes, and all I had to do was get her and take her back to the bathroom!
And again, she proudly proclaimed "I did it!" I congratulated her and fussed over her being such a smart girl before she ran off.
If I'd known this particular method would be so much less soul-wrenching for the both of us, I'd thought of it much sooner! But the important thing now is that I found something that works.
She's still not "potty trained", but I'm not changing pull-ups every few hours either. It's a win-win situation.
Also, A. saved up just enough money doing chores that she was finally able to buy the princess cell phone toy she saw at wal-mart last week. I gave her the money to give to the cashier all by herself, even. She was so excited! She's been carrying that phone everywhere since she bought it yesterday, occasionally flipping it open even as we're walking and putting it up to her ear to see what Princess Jasmine has to say about Aladdin's latest adventures.
But she lost it at the children's museum today, and we didn't realize it until we were half-way home. It was too late, anyways. The Children's museum would have been closed by the time we got back there.
It really was heart-wrenching for me to see her distress over losing that phone. Because it wasn't just any phone. It was the very first thing she's ever bought with money she, herself, has earned.
I thought about calling them, turning around and going back for it, but I didn't. As much as it sucks, this is a great way for her to learn about keeping track of her things and taking responsibility for them. I'm always telling her to keep this or that in the car because I don't want her to lose it. But today I just didn't. I didn't think of it. My bad. But this isn't about me.
I told her that I was sorry she lost it, but that she could earn more money to get a brand new one, and maybe next time she'll be more careful with her things. Surprisingly, that was enough to quell the tears flowing down her cheeks. Still though, I'm thinking about calling the Children's museum to see if her phone has been turned in. But then what? If I give it to her, she'll never learn to be responsible for her belongings.
So now I'm trying to think of extra things she can do around the house this week to earn the money back faster (that $3.06 was the result of weeks and weeks of accumulated change).
I just feel so terrible that she lost it so soon after buying it.
It's hard to be a preschooler, sometimes, isn't it?
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