Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I Think I'll Try

That's Olivia's new line.

She says it each time she needs to use the bathroom. As in, every time she needs to poop.

I have never claimed to be an expert on 5p-. I have, though, claimed to be an expert on my own child.

And, at the risk of jinxing her, I will say that, as an Olivia expert, I do believe that she is 99% potty trained, both for urination and bowel movements.

For awhile there, she was doing really, really well with me. I'd see her, something in her expression would make me ask her if she had to poop and she'd declare that yes, yes indeed, she did have to poop. And off we'd go to the bathroom where miracles happen.

But with my mom and Tom, there were still more poopy pants than amazing events taking place in the bathroom.

Sunday morning, though, I came downstairs to hear Tom and Olivia in the bathroom. He came out to tell me that he'd found her in there, attempting to wipe herself with a wet wipe after having gone poop in the toilet.

She hadn't bothered to tell him that she had to go. She'd just gone in, done her business and was trying to finish the whole thing when he found her.

Can I get a wow? She's not supposed to be able to do this.

And yet today, while in the water at the pool and she declared, "I think I will try to poop."

We made our way to the bathroom and I turned away from her, telling her I wouldn't watch. Neither of my girls like to have anyone watch while they go. I don't blame them. I do wish, though, that they'd extend the same courtesy to me. Huh.

Anyway, this summer my mom has informed me several times that Olivia hasn't been able to let her know she needed to do while in the pool. Which, ick! And thank goodness for chemicals, because, yeah, ewww.

There is something about swimming that relaxes her and makes bowel movements a bit easier. O's very regular but she has to work at the evacuation situation. I know, probably TMI but there are people out there reading this who have kids with 5p- who are younger and I'm hoping to give an accurate picture of my girl and her challenges.

So here we are. She's five and a half and is telling me consistently when she had to poop. She goes pee on the toilet all by herself. Which is awesome because we can now buy a new couch. We'd been putting it off until there was no longer anyone who was peeing on the furniture on a consistent basis.

This is such a big deal and I'm so proud of her. It's something she's worked so hard on. We've never shamed her when it comes to potty issues. That's not how we do things. But we've tried to be consistent and it's working. There could very well be a glitch in all this as we make our way toward six and beyond but she's proving that she can do it. She can communicate these needs to us and take care of them herself.

Knowing this, we can weather the setbacks as they come just because we'll know that's all they are, setbacks. We'll just work through them and get her back to where she is today. And where she is today is just plain awesome.

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