Potty Rant & "Things To Do Song"

Potty training is a roller-coaster of highs and lows, positives and negatives, successes and failures. Hmm, a lot like teaching teenagers English, isn't it? I am familiar with the frustration that goes along with trying to teach someone a concept that is challenging, requires effort, and takes practice to learn and master. Today was no exception. First, the positives. The streak of Collin pooping in the pot continued, which means I haven't had to change soiled undergarments in five straight days! We had four successful potty visits at home and three attempts at a restaurant, all of which resulted in dry underpants and shorts. Collin managed to survive a 35-minute car ride home followed by a two-hour nap without any accidents. Hooray!

Okay, the negatives. Today yielded a rise in accidents. They all happened the second half of the day: one in the car on the way to lunch (I don't blame him - I had to go too, but of course I've had some practice with holding it), one playing outside after trying to use the restaurant toilet three times but getting 'potty fright' (he told me he had to go but obviously didn't feel comfortable enough to do it in the bathroom), one before a late dinner (probably too hungry and tired at that point to put forth the effort required to use the potty), and one before bed (Daddy had him in a Pull-up, which is pretty much like saying, "Here, go ahead and pee in this glorified diaper."). Well, now that I've written all that down, I don't feel so defeated as a teacher of pee and poop - wow, quite different from teaching English - because I can understand why the day went down the way it did. Tomorrow is a new day, right?

And what did Olivia have to contribute to the show today besides her infectious smiles and cute factor? She did another day of sleeping in until after 6:30 and made it through the day on two naps without having a total meltdown. Good baby! At the Fairfax Corner fountains, she just sat in front of one of the geysers and had a blast getting splashed and sprayed in the hair and face. No fear of water for that one! She was also the inspiration and recipient of Collin's latest song he made up on the car ride over to meet our friends. He proclaimed from the backseat, "I'm going to sing the 'Things To Do Song' for Olivia, Mommy," and proceeded to make up lyrics extemporaneously for a straight twenty minutes while she smiled sweetly at him like he was some Grammy award-winning artist. Here is a little sample from what I can remember: "Hazzy ozzy bozo go to the playground and climb the ladderrrrr baba dooba oh oh oh and whoosh down the sliiiiide hezzy haku doo doo and go for a waaaaalk..." Wish I had recorded the thing, but I was driving. The little breakdown in the middle was the best when he just spouted out random words as he thought of them in stream-of-consciousness fashion, somehow going from trees to fences to various colors to food to ice cream. No surprise there. Anyway, I think it's just adorable how Olivia already looks up to her big brother like he's all that and a bag of Puffs. :)