The proper motivation

We hit 37 weeks today, officially full-term according to most medical standards.  YAY!!!  Now if only I knew the proper motivation to get baby boy to emerge from his little haven, then we'd be in good shape.  The truth is, I don't really want him to come until he's ready; however, I am ready for him to come any time.  Today, even!

37 weeks

I'm thankful for a normal, healthy pregnancy so far and for no major or serious complaints or complications of any kind.  The list of minor annoyances and things I hate about this stage of pregnancy is long, and I'm ready to be done, even with what "being done" means in those last few hours.  Chase may differ from me a bit on that - he's not really read to take on the whole "ending" process.  But at least this time we both know the outcome will be worth it!  The crib is up, the clothes are washed, the car seat is ready, the bags are (mostly) packed.  All we need are those first contractions...

What spurred the title of this blog was not the impending arrival of our son, but rather the actions of our daughter.  Today she absolutely cracked me up!  Here's how it went...

We had a lovely morning at home of reading, cuddling, playing dolls, and playing toys.  I just played with her all morning, and it was glorious!  It got to be lunch time, so I heated up leftovers from Saturday.  We sat down, and she scarfed the bread, ate 1/2 an apple, but refused to eat the casserole.  That's fine.  I get to decide what, when and where she eats.  She gets to decide if and how much she eats.

She (as she typically does) asked for "Candy?" to finish the meal.  I told her that she could not have candy or a cookie unless she finished all of the casserole on her plate.  (And let me tell you, it wasn't that much.)  She asked to be excused and off she went to play.

A little while later, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, she asked me if she could sit on her potty chair because she needed to go potty.

*NOTE*  About 2 months ago I pushed the potty thing hard one day and got absolutely nowhere except both of us frustrated and crying.  So I haven't even mentioned anything to do with potty unless she brings it up.  And at this point, with a new baby arriving sometime in the next 4 weeks, I have no desire to be running my toddler to the bathroom every 20 mins!  So I am very content to keep paying for diapers for her for another few months at least.  Ok, now back to the story...*

If she's asking to go and we're in a place where I can accommodate the request, I decided long ago that I probably should.  So today she asked and we had plenty of time.  We got her pants and diaper off and her situated on the potty chair.  Then what was really going on came out.

"Mommy, I pottied.  Can I have a lollipop?"

She hadn't actually pottied at this point.  She had just sat on the potty chair for about 10 seconds.  So I told her that no, she could not have a lollipop until there was yellow potty in her potty chair.  She determined to continue sitting.

We sang songs, did action rhymes, and drank water.  After about 10 minutes I asked if she was all done.  She said yes and got up and asked (for the 100th time) for her lollipop.  I (for the 100th time) explained that she couldn't have a lollipop until there was yellow potty in the potty chair.  She decided to sit some more.

Eventually I decided to go grab my phone from the kitchen table.  When I returned, she was triumphantly standing over her potty chair.  "Look, Mommy!  Yellow potties in my potty chair!"  And sure enough, there it was.  Yellow potty.  In the potty chair.  "Can I have my lollipop?"

So I praised and clapped and made a big stinking deal out of it, and promised to get her the lollipop as soon as we wiped, flushed and washed.  I asked if she wanted a diaper back on or if she'd like to wear big girl underwear for a while.  She responded without missing a beat, "I want my diaper on."  So that's what we did, and we got her the coveted lollipop.

I honestly don't expect that we've turned any kind of a huge corner on potty training.  In fact, I'll be shocked if we did.  Today wasn't at all about potty training.

Here's what was really going on:  Lily figured out that she wasn't going to get candy by finishing her lunch.  She didn't want to finish that casserole on her plate.  So she found another way to get what she wanted - pottying in the potty chair.  She knew that if she put yellow potties in that potty chair she would get her lollipop.  And that (though it took 15 or 20 minutes of sitting there) seemed preferable to eating something she didn't want to eat.

To quote Little Einsteins, "I cannot BELIEVE it!"

They are smart, these little ones.  They get it.  And sometimes all it takes is the proper motivation.  Maybe I should make food she doesn't like at every meal and we could conquer this potty training thing in no time...

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!