Who's Gotta Potty?

At my baby shower one of my friends said "Oh, Mae...one of these two has a stinky diaper"

I thought "Uh...it's not Lily, she doesn't crap in her pants anymore, duh!?"

Then I realized I sounded an awful like I did a few months ago when this blessed incident happened. To try and avoid a second, prideful, poop slap in the face, I went over and checked anyway.

SUCCESS!!!

The poop smell was not coming from my child!
But I kid you not, I ran to my hostess's bathroom like lightening [for a pregnant woman, anyway] just in case she was about to pee/poop. In my rush I made Lily drop the bottom half of her pants in the toilet. At my baby shower. I walked out red faced as Lily walked out happy as can be looking like Huckleberry Finn with her little pants rolled up to her thighs. This only happens to me, people...only me...

Lily has actually pooped in her diaper 3 times in the past 4 months, it's pretty exciting!
Even though I swore up and down that I would NOT have two babies in diapers, it looks like I'm still going to. Lily poops in the potty about 95% of the time. Sometimes she is running to the potty trying to hold it in and she screams "UH OH MAMA! POPE! POPE!" [I didn't think we were gonna raise her Irish Catholic like the rest of Eamon's family, but somehow...] She pees in the potty about 90% of the time, but only when we're at home. I haven't been brave [brave in this sentence could also mean "willing to get up from the table every 20 mins when we go out to eat"] enough to try it out in public, but I know the time is coming. When she misses at home, she brings over Rusty, calls him and "bad dog" for licking up [gag] the pee she just shoved in his face, runs to her bedroom to get a cloth diaper, throws it over the pee and stomps on it until it's all dry. She has a mind of her own, I tell ya!


So here's what's worked for us
1. Lily's "Diaper Free" around our house at all times, and has been since she was itty bitty. 
We've started letting her wear panties [She'll bring them to us and say "Panies?" when she wants to put them on, so cute] but she still isn't really good at pulling them down before she sits on her potty.
2. No physical rewards, just LOTS of praise.
We don't have a sticker box, candy dish, or dollar store toy chest that we let Lily dig into every time she potties. We kinda think it's weird to bribe your kid, and Lily is BEYOND excited when she brings us her little pot saying "DEE! DEE!" or "OOOOOOH!!! POOOOPE!" and we clap and give her kisses. She feels really special, and we never have to worry about whether or not we have her "reward" for her when we go out.
3. Patience.
Six months ago all of our friends thought we were insane for having Lily's potty sit out where she could get to it, and that we put her on it as much as possible. They thought we were pretty sick for having to clean up the pee/poop off of our floors too. But I tell you what, by slowly introducing all of this to Lily, her "training" has put her at the top of her class. [You know, if you want me to get all competitive mom on you...]




I feel really confident that before her birthday we'll be able to go out in public with Lily wearing panties and just have to worry about the baby's diapers, but am still kinda kicking myself over the fact that she still will be in them for these first few months.

But please, PLEASE don't worry! I'm sure there will be PLENTY more poop stories in our future. One night, after watching me sing Lily's Potty song [I sing "Lily's gotta potty, Lily's gotta potty, Lily's gotta potty, hey, hey, hey, hey! Who's gotta potty? Lily's gotta potty!" to the tune of the Little Rascal's "I got a pickle" song] Eamon told me "You know, I'm so glad we're not covered in poop anymore, but I just realized...it's about to start all over..."

Stay tuned for a super fun, awesome giveaway :]!!!

Mae