Life with a two year old.

*Don't read this if you don't want to hear about Daphne's boring potty schedule. You've been warned.

Two year olds not only have a TON to learn in this crazy age of life, but they also insist on doing it all on their own. Thus, the terrible twos. Some people say 3 and 4 is hard too and sometimes even harder. I can agree on some accounts (ahem... Makiah...), but really the fact that these two year olds are put through so much just makes it, well, terrible. Poor things. Poor moms. And dads. Goodness. Temper tantrums are a huge part of our lives around here (for all three girls (yes I said three, me too)). Daphne is, well, two. Makiah is, well, Makiah. And me? Every now and then I loose it too ;) But Daphne is the hardest to handle in the temper tantrum area right now. We are working through it, trying not to give in to stop the crying and trying to teach why things happen the way they do. Daphne is sweet and after a good cry she will share again and say sorry. We love her.

A few days after Daphne threw away her binkies she was still doing awesome with nap time. I let her nap in Makiah's bed to see if she would actually sleep without her crib. She did great! So we converted her crib to a toddler bed (yeay!). She still naps every day and has not come out of her room during a nap once. Whew! It's been so nice.

No binky, check. No crib, check. No diapers?

This is not what it looks like. I won't say I'm potty training... Because I'm not. This is all her idea so I'm just playing along. What else do you do when a kid refuses to wear a diaper?

This is how the first day went...

Daph woke up, insisted that she wears underwear. I had some shopping to do so I bought Dora underwear instead of diapers. We get home, she puts on a pair, sits on the potty a few times and then wets herself (expected, I'm totally ok with accidents. She needs to learn somehow). Then came nap time = diaper. She woke up with an attitude, didn't want underwear, wore a diaper the rest of the day.

Second day... Woke up, asked for underwear, peed I'm the potty(!), stayed dry all morning, wore a pull up because we had somewhere we had to go, sat on the potty while we were out, had an accident, wore a diaper at nap time, refused to take it off after. Again, she had an attitude when she woke up. No underwear.

This morning she went in the potty again!! But then we had to leave the house, so yeah. Diaper. well see how moody she is when she wakes up today...

I totally know I should take away the diapers completely, stay home for 2-3 days and not use pull ups during the day. But I'm not potty training so it doesn't matter :) hehehe.

When I trained Evan I started when he was two (when everyone potty trained, so I thought). I pushed him. I studied every method out there. I tried every trick. A year and a half later he was potty trained... but he still had a hard time, even through Kindergarten he struggled with a few things. With Makiah I didn't push. I waited and pretty much she begged me to potty train her. I kinda did what I am doing with Daph and she taught herself. Within a couple weeks she was good to go and never struggled.

I love what I learned from the two times I potty trained before. I learned to ignore the pressure from other moms (even if it comes unintentionally its there). I can potty train when and how I want. Mommy debates don't affect me anymore. I'm in no rush to have her potty trained by a certain age and I see no reason do try and do it in a day (or two or three). There are great methods out there, and I know a lot of people who swear by them... but they aren't for everyone (especially this over anxious mom). Daphne is interested, so as long as we're at home she can do what she wants. I'm sure at one point it will either click for her like it did for Makiah, or I can take a week off from life to get her trained quickly, if I have to. For now I'm ok, and she is having fun not potty training.