The potty war...

After casually dabbling with some potty training for the last couple months I stepped up the intensity today. I just finished reading the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day by Nathan Azrin and Richard Foxx. It is an intensive method developed in the early 70's and is taught at seminars today. I acquired a copy of the handouts from someone who attended the seminar and swears by it (trained 3 of her kids). Along with a copy of the book from Amazon.com and a cheap doll that wets, I figured for the cost of one month's worth of diapers I didn't have much to lose.

I must say I was pretty anxious about doing it because I didn't feel as prepared as I wanted to be, and I had had two of my worst "mommy days" in a row, so the starting circumstances weren't ideal. However, I dove right in after some intense prayer time this morning and this verse from Psalm 144:1 "Bless the Lord, who is my rock. He gives me strength for war and skill for battle."

Emily & I spent 3 hours in the bathroom this morning. I quickly discovered that she probably wouldn't pass the "instructional readiness test" mentioned in the book. In other words, she wasn't in the mood to follow my commands this morning. As a result, we didn't even come close to getting trained. However, there were some major moral victories. First of all, she did go in the potty more than she ever has before and even had her first BM. Second of all, at no point did I feel utterly frustrated or get upset or yell. After the last couple days that is huge. The phone started ringing off the hook and I was trying to get lunch put together, so it's my fault things really fell off at the end. I am willing to try again tomorrow, though. I am optimistic that even if it gets us one month closer to being fully trained it will have been worth it. This was only one battle in a longer war, and as the Bible verse says, God will give me strength and skill to endure and overcome! ;o)