2, 4, 6, 8, She Likes To Manipulate

( I want to be clear that if you don't want to read about poop then you should "x" out of this blog and come back another day!)
I've got to be quick b/c the cherubs are sleeping and as soon as they realize that I have stolen a minute of solitude to sit at the computer, instead catching up with house work, one of them will surely wake up.
(They woke up long before I finished this post, so now I'm frantically typing before I need to go to bed)

Let me sum this up, by saying that, by far potty training has been my absolute least favorite part of parenting.  Here is a  time chart of what we've been doing the last month, the dates are a round about estimate.
June 1- Mommy and the Little go on special date to Target and buy stickers, poster board, and another pack of princess panties...let the training begin!
June 2- The Little laughs at the chart, pees on the floor, and goes on her merry way

June 11- The Little is playing in her paddling pool, runs in the house to declare "that she has to go poohy!"  and in the potty it went
June 12- Repeat of the day before. In my head I think "I'm sure that the time has come, and we are ready to kiss diapers goodbye... See ya pampers! Oh wait, I have a baby that will be in diapers for at least 2 more years. Sigh"
June 13-21ish- I brag to my friends "she's got it and basically did it all on her own," "She is a potty genius, her chart is full of stickers"  Okay, really she had mostly good days, one or two accidents tops, but all in all good.  However, she gradually went from poohing on the potty, to waiting for her pull up at nap time or bed time.

June 22nd- I make her wear an outfit she doesn't like and she hid in her play house to poop in her panties.
-I freak out b/c I really, truly, in my heart think she did this on purpose
June 23rd- Busy playing with a friend and poops in her panties again- I stay calm, but only just barely
June 23rd, 5 minutes later- standing in front of me while I'm nursing the baby, poops in her panties again- I freak out and put her in a time out
June 24th-25th- Tummy troubles and in pull ups most of the weekend
The next couple of days were much the same and maybe I got some of those days mixed up, but here comes my breaking point...
June 28th- Perfect.  Everything. Pees, poohs, on the potty, all day long, on her own, with out me reminding her it was time to try again.  Woohoo!  
I celebrate we are over the hump!
June 29th- We go shopping.  She freaks out in a dressing room b/c I wont let her wear a purple dress home.  When I say freak out, I mean the kind of freak out, that causes on lookers to stare and judge. I mean, on the floor rolling and screaming.  I still bought the dress.  I hung it my closet and told her it was prize for pooping on the potty.
June 29th, 10 minutes after we get home-  I can't find Libby.  I locate her in the playroom pooping in her panties...I freak out b/c I'm convinced she is pooping  in her panties b/c I wont let her have the purple dress

Basically the week fell apart after that.  She would hide, I would realize she was hiding, and find her with poop in her panties.  I was coming unraveled.  One can only handle poop on there hands so many times before, you know, you just pop..and trust me if poop is in the panties it going to get on your hands, their legs,every where...it is gross!
Friday afternoon Kev came home to find me standing in the middle of my bed, with my fist in the air, my hair unnaturally full, screaming at the top of my lungs and I quote,

"I will not loose this battle! You are not getting your diapers back, you will poop on the potty again, and Mommy will prevail!"  

She just starred at me, along with the dog, the cat, and the Littlest, with baffled looks on their faces.
Several hours later she poop in her panties...
at the pool..
I had aproximently 5 baby wipes with me.
It was neat.
God bless my sweet husband, he totally took over for me this weekend, almost to the point of not telling me when she had an accident, he just handled it.  I kept finding washed out panties drying out on the wash tub in the garage.

Okay, fast forward to yesterday...Kev is back at work and I wake up with new resolve, "I will not freak out, I will encourage her to tell me when she has to go, even if she is just asking me for diaper to go in"  I was so over cleaning up poohy panties and legs, and floors, and everything else that got poop on... I was convinced that I was the reason for all the accidents and she was forever scarred b/c I  disciplined her several times for the poopy panties, not to mention my passionate soliloquy I delivered from my bed .  I was determined to do it "the right way" this week...whatever that is.
July 5th- Libby hides in the closest to poop in her pull up...I stay calm, tell  her that it was okay to poop in the pull up if she needed to, but to go to the bathroom to do it next time.
July 5th one hour later- Libby is quietly playing in her playroom, this is not normal, she always wants my attention in the morning, why isn't she asking me to play...Libby has poop in her panties again.. in my head I say, "are you kidding me it's the beggining of our day, it can't start this way!!!!  Stay clam, stay calm, stay clam!!!!  Do not start shouting about battles and winning, do not start punching your fist in the air"
July 5th after I clean poop up again- I pull out the purple dress.  "Libs remember this dress that you love, you can have it if you poop in the potty three times."
Just like that, my kid goes in the bathroom and produces a rabbit size pooh.  She does this 3 more times in the next hour, like she has been poohing on the potty her whole life.
She got the dress.

July 5th, after bedtime- I realize that rewarding the behavior (or bribing, whatever you want to call it) works.  I headed to Target and leave with another poster board to make a "Pooh Chart", more stickers, and 3 prizes, each one a bit bigger than the last.
Row one of the chart had 3 spaces for stickers to win prize #1, 5 poohs for prize #2, and 10 poohs for prize #3.  I wrapped each prize and put the new chart on the wall.
July 6th- I take the Little into the bathroom for the rules of the new pooh game.  I teach her about working for the prize, or earning the reward.   A few minutes later she declares that she has to go poohy! She goes, she gets the sticker and we count, 2 more times and she gets the first prize.  Well by lunch time, she had the first prize.  Every 30 minutes, she would yell "Mommy, I have to go poohies!"  And every time she would go.  Trust me when I tell you that she went no less than 10 times today.  She pushed and grunted her way through each one in hopes that she would win all 3 prizes today.

This cunning Mama will not be manipulated by her cunning 2 year old.  I was the one manipulating rewarding her, so I told her that I was proud of each and every pooh, but we would stop working on the chart for today, and pick up working towards prize number two tomorrow.  Eighteen squares I put on the chart...In my head that meant eighteen days of practicing pooping and in the end she would get it, right?  Well, at this rate she have the chart filled up by tomorrow and I'll be back at Target searching for even bigger and better bribes rewards.
I'm exhausted, no matter where you're cleaning poop up from, it is gross, panties or the mini potty, it is gross, and I've done it at least 10 times today and that is not counting the baby's dirty diapers.
I'm guessing that if you read this post carefully you are going to see multiple counts of poor parenting...I know that they are there, from the freaking out, to the bribing, to the standing on the bed shouting to anyone who would listen that I would prevail...but please don't judge me too harshly, I'm learning as I go.  It's hard to know what to do with a little girl who has an iron clad will, and knows how to poop on command.

But there you go.  The poop war is on...she was in the lead last week, but me and my pooh chart are trying to make a come back!
Happy potty training.

Grace and Peace
xoxo
By the way, I have been given just about every piece of potty training advice possible and probably tried it, I just left all of that out b/c this post was long enough all ready! :)
and yes, despite the stress of the last few weeks, I do believe that one day, when my little freedom flower is grown, I'll miss these days and my heart will ache to see her and that mischievous grin. :)