Only Big Girls Wear Lipstick!

There is one thing my daughter has observed about her children - both of them seem to operate on the same wave length when it comes to going to the bathroom. The only problem is that one is only almost 16 months old and the other, is almost 46 months old. However, it does seem that if you detect a certain tell-tale aroma emanating from one, you can pretty much count on the fact that very shortly you'll have a very similar smell coming from the other one.

Now, this is one aspect we'd like to change. We're both tired of changing dirty diapers - whether they be of the type with the velcro fasteners across the front or the pull-up type -both Mandy and I would love to see at least one set of these undergarments gone.

Obviously, we're trying to get the older one "housebroken" first but at this point in time, it really almost seems like we are fighting a losing battle.

We've tried the little potty chair but she has refused completely to sit on it since she was about 18 months old. Yes, we've been working on this project for that long! She throws an absolute hissy fit and you run the risk of a major meltdown if you press the issue with that chair so we've pretty much just been using it as bathroom adornment and not an item actually serving a purpose.

Until she began to talk a little bit, showing a little bit of communication skills, we really didn't work all that hard with the potty training though. But for at least the past six-eight months now, her comprehension levels have increased enough that we figured it was worth trying to stress using the bathroom fixtures for the purposes intended. We have a really cute little insert - all pretty and floral designs on it - to slap on the commode seat to make it so she doesn't need to be afraid or think she's gonna fall in the water at any moment but she generally doesn't want much to do with it. Sometimes, she will tell us she needs dry pants and when we take her in to change her, inevitably we ask her if she'd like to sit on the potty. At that stage, it's really kind of a redundant question though isn't it, since the damage is already done but we figure maybe if we get her better acclimated to at least sitting there for more than five seconds at a clip, one of these days we'll hit it lucky and get her there when she still has something left to let go, ya know.

Today, she had expressed to Mandy that she would like to wear some "unney-wears" - her name for the big girl panties of which she has a very large selection. (At least Mandy has had faith that sometime in the near future - before she outgrows these panties -we'll meet with some type of success. We've been talking to her about how she is a big girl now and big girls wear "unney-wears". Only babies wear diapers or pull-ups and she knows she isn't a baby. But that hasn't apparently been of enough value to her.

So, today Mandy decided she'd try another form of bribery.

One of Miss Maya's favorite things is to get into her big sister's makeup and apply that liberally to her cheeks, eyes and mouth. Crayons often are substituted for lipstick and she dearly loves to pretend she is putting on lipstick. So Mandy informed her that babies don't wear makeup or lipstick but big girls and ONLY big girls can wear lipstick so if she wants to wear lipstick, she has to start using the potty chair.

And, she really thought she was on to a gold mine there because as soon as she heard that proclamation, she went running into the bathroom, pulled her pull-ups down, placed the floral ring on the commode and got up there all on her own. WOW! Mandy was pretty excited thinking she had finally found the key to end our issues with the toilet training dilemma. That is, until Maya only sat there a little over the normal five seconds, then hopped down and it was business as usual.

A little later, Maya was standing beside me as I was doing some research on the computer and talking to her at the same time. I was talking to her about how next month she's going to be going to the pre-school over in Clearfield (for autistic kids) and how when big girls go to school, they use the potty - not pull-ups (or dragontails, as she refers to them - because of the designs on the front of her pullups).

And in talking about this to her, I asked her about this situation -coming right out, being upfront with her, I asked her "Don't you want to be a big girl and use the potty?"

She pulled back slightly from me, looked me straight in the eye and in no uncertain terms responded to me in a very firm, fairly loud voice, "NO!"

Guess she told me didn't she?

So, back to the drawing board it goes once more!