Misadventures in Potty Training

A common topic that comes up on my "mommy board" that I frequent is, "How do I know my toddler is ready for potty training?" Good question. Equally as important though, I can tell you when he/she is NOT ready for potty training.

1) When she does this

2) Or this

3) Or this

4) Or when you hear phrases coming from your husband like, "No Reagan, don't bite your potty seat." Or when you hear the phrase "I did it!" from your toddler but it simply means she was able to worm herself out of the seat after wearing it like a beauty contestant sash. (In her defense it really was an accomplishment to get herself out of the potty seat beauty contestant sash. I thought we might have to call the fire department on that one.)

To explain myself, yesterday I went shopping and took Reagan to get a "big girl potty." She is afraid of sitting on a regular toilet seat and I abhor cleaning poop out of the baby potty so it seemed like the way to go. Of all of the seats, she picked the Dora one. I guess Elmo is still leaving her a bit gun shy. I figured since she got to pick it she would be more likely to want to use it. She carried it all through the store and all the way home and up the stairs into the house. But wouldn't you know, as soon as she got to the top of the stairs she turned around and tossed the Dora potty back down the stairs and said, "no potty." Yeah, this isn't going to go well. I tried to show her the Dora potty sitting on the big potty and she wasn't having it. But she is happy to use it as her latest form of entertainment and point out all of the places Boots appears.

Yeah, my toddler is NOT ready for potty training.

Oh, and yes, her clothes are on backwards. She wears a uniform to school and one of the uniform options is these overalls. I always send her to school in them going the right way and they send her home with them on backwards. If they didn't she'd be naked all day and they seem to frown on that there. She can unbutton the straps quicker than houdini could escape from a locked chest so it's their only option.

And here is one more pic I took tonight that I'm posting just for the cuteness factor.