Chocolate Wanted - Inquire Within

Ava is napping and I am blogging here, eating dark chocolate with nuts (which, by the way, is the best dark chocolate I ever had in my life - better than anything back in the States) because I need chocolate. I decided that I deserved it today. I'm not having a bad day; it's more like, I am slowly wearing down and it's noticeable today. I haven't reached the end of my rope or anything.

The potty training is getting to me. I'm not sure I understand what's happening but Ava was doing pretty well at first and now she's having accidents daily - just in the last week. I need to post about this because writing helps me to think and process things.

What's causing her to start having accidents in the last week? We started putting underwear on her exactly a week ago. Initially, we kept her naked at home. That worked really well; she was taking herself to the potty without being reminded. Then we had the dilemma of what to do when we went out in public. We started with short walks out with a dress on and no underwear. Ava did fine. I had once tried putting loose shorts on her without underwear and she had an accident it so we tried dresses with no underwear and that was more successful. Then one night, a week ago, friends came over and wanted to show us an area of the city so we dressed Ava in a dress and no underwear. We put her in the stroller and she kept flashing everyone. She wriggled around, slouched, moved and her dress rode up and her front was out for all the world to see. We kept pulling down her dress underneath the straps of the stroller but she turned it into a game and started pulling it back up. We didn't like that. We don't want everyone to see her private business. So, we put her in underwear the next day.

The next night, we went over to a different friend's house to eat. We put Ava in a dress and underwear. She had accidents there. That morning, she did great with no accidents but had accidents that evening. I could understand because we stayed pretty late past her bedtime and she was probably tired and not noticing the urge to go to potty. I was embarrassed because she'd messed up their rugs but they have 4 kids so they understood.

After that, we noticed that she, still wearing underwear, started having accidents at home which puzzled us because she hadn't had accidents at home for a week or so. Okay, so underwear is the culprit but what in the world do we do about going out in public?

Another thing about going out in public is that she refuses to use the potty anywhere. We'd sit her on the potty and she'd refuse to go and then have an accident minutes later. She's doing that at home, too. When we ask her if she needs to go potty or when we just take her, she just refuses and then minutes later, she go potty on the floor. That, my friends, is what's getting to me.

Furthermore, she's demanded her diapers back. Ava can wake up from naps dry but still needs a diaper at night. This morning, I took her diaper off and she threw a fit and demanded that I put it back on her. Later in the morning, we were out visiting and I took Ava to the potty. She asked for a diaper then.

So, I have two options: 1) If I can persuade Ava to give up her diapers, I'll revert to keeping her naked at home but I don't know what to do about going out in public. 2) Or else, I keep her in diapers until she decides she wants to go potty again. The second option doesn't make sense to me much because she'll take off her diaper and go in the potty.

I guess there are good days and bad days. Accident-free days and accident-filled days. I haven't had a break from her since we moved here 6 weeks ago. Two of these weeks, it was just me alone with her. So, it might be good for the whole potty training process if I go off and have some serious time to myself and come back with a better perspective and newfound patience.

I'm off to read potty-training anecdotes. Those seem to encourage me more than advice, tips, and solutions. I like knowing other moms get frustrated and don't have smooth potty-training experiences. It helps me to keep things in perspective and to know I'm not alone!