A Surprising Benefit of our Vacation

This one deserves its own post.

While on vacation in Cancun Wayne's mom Millie and sister, Kathy, stayed at our house to watch the girls. During this time, Lindsey was officially and finally fully potty trained. Now, if you are a non parent, or perhaps not so fond of the details of bodily functions that go along with being a parent, just stop right there, join the jubilation with us, know that a milestone has been reached and move on to some other post. For those of you who are more used to the discussions around our children's bodily functions, read on.

Lindsey's been potty trained in so far as she'll go peepee on the potty for quite some time. Going "poopy," however, has been met with fear and reluctance. She's been going poopy in pull-ups for months and months, even going so far as disrupting her bedtime to do it because she'll wait until she has a diaper or pull-up on, which doesn't happen until bedtime, and then will do it and need to get changed before going to sleep.

We've encouraged, we've discussed, we've rewarded, we've talked about prizes she would get should she ever go poopy in the potty. Her answer is always, "I'll go poopy in the potty when I'm bigger." Never mind the fact that the girl is 3 years and 8 months old, and that everyone else in her pre-school class is already fully potty trained.

So we were shocked when on our first day of calling back to the house on our vacation we were informed that Lindsey had gone poopy on the potty, and was rewarded with a piece of gum and a popsicle. Perhaps it was the fact that we weren't home at all and she may not have wanted to ask someone other than one of us to change a diaper on her. She told her Aunt Kathy that her tummy felt better after she went poopy. Yep, that happens!

We were hoping this would keep up upon our return. On our first day back, she said she had to go and she sat and sat on that potty several times and never did go. She ended up going in her underwear at about 5 in the morning. Sigh...

But the next day was met with success! About 7 at night she announced she had to go poopy, and sat right down in the little portable potty chair in the kitchen and went! Can I just say, I didn't realize a body that little could create something so large? Yikes!!

So hopefully we're on the road to good potty habits and no more pull-ups or diapers for the biggest kid in the house. Whew!!

Now on to Marissa...hopefully she will be a bit younger than 3 years and 8 months when she finally hits that milestone. I know that someday this will all seem so far in the past, but a day without having to change diapers seems like a utopia that's so far off in the distance, and it's now gotten just a little bit closer!