She's a Whiz

Grandma gave Riley a very apt "Mommy's Little Alarm Clock" onesie recently. This morning she was up early, even for her. Some hazy sleep drenched hour before 7am, Riley was up. She was standing in the doorway she had already removed her own diaper. She was saying "Mama, pee pee!" and pointing between her legs.

I'm not exactly quick on my feet wide awake so I shook Mike awake and yell-mumbled "potty! the baby! help her.." He clamored up, grabbed Miss Roo and fumbled with her potty seat before depositing her on the toilet. It was a bit of an anticlimax from there. She babbled happily and made peeing sound effects, but did not pee.

After she asked to get down she scampered over to my side of the bed and said "up." We cuddled dozing for a bit and then she said, "Pee pee!" I shook Mike again, lowered Riley off the bed and told her to go back to the potty. Mike met her there and lifted her up just in time for her to (drum roll please) pee in the potty.

It was at that point that I pulled myself out of bed and went looking for the "Potty Book". Boo's mom gave it to Riley and it has reward stickers in it that say things like "potty super star". I was too tired to locate it in the still dim house so I grabbed the gold foil stars I keep on the fridge for Isaac's sticker chart and "raced" back to the bathroom. I rewarded Riley with a gold star sticker on her hand. She beamed with pride and then after a second exclaimed "all done!"

I cuddled with her in her bed after that and told her she was a good girl. We fell back asleep briefly and then it was up and at'em for me and the kids. The potty triumph seemed worth my missed sleep though. She didn't use the potty again all day. She was incredibly verbal about needing diaper changes, got things started for us once or twice and even tried to put the new diaper by herself.

Potty training is not a progression. It's a long strange (often gross) journey. As a matter of fact I had just exclaimed the day before I thought we had "stalled out on the potty training front." Have I mentioned that I've been wrong before? Here's hoping the downhill part of this crazy adventure is close at hand.