Patience my friend

I feel like the theme of my life right now is patience. We are waiting for the next "step" with our adoption and we completed the process of buying and selling our house.
Lessons have been learned. Sure, traffic jams and long lines still give me anxiety, but I am learning how to deal with them and learning to relax and not be too "busy" for life.

Potty training is the final exam in the test of patience.

Holy. Moly. It's hard.

Our living room has been transformed into the main command post of potty training boot camp. Sure, that sounds a tad serious considering her potty is pink, soft and has Dora stickers all over it, but we mean business over here.

Like I said, I've always made it clear on the blog and in real life, how patience isn't my cup of tea. Unfortunately, that characteristic occasionally extends to my tiny little lady. Insert potty training boot camp. Now, I can assure you that it isn't all mean and hard core. There are pretty undies with pink ponies on them, stickers, candies and kitty cats.

Yes, that's right you heard me say kitty cats.

My daughter likes cats. I use the word, "like" loosely. If I were being honest and straight forward, I would tell you that she LOVES them. We took her to the store to pick out a few "treats" to reinforce her potty use and we left the store with TWO cat items. I tried every trick in the book to make other toys look cooler, but she is so into cute little cats.

My first failure as a parent.
I hate cats. They make me swell like a tick and they kinda scare me.

I'm a crazy dog lady.
Anywhoo, I'll fall in love with them if they keep me from changing another dirty diaper.

I want instant potty training and the only way I know how to get anything quickly, is to get rid of the old stuff and get in with the new stuff. Which meant this week, Isabelle started wearing her big girl undies exclusively (except during nap and nighttime) and we became the annoying, nagging parents. "Do you need to use the potty?" "Remember where we go pee and poo poo? On the potty." "Let's try to sit on the potty so we can go pee pee!" Every 20 minutes we put her on the squishy potty (why don't adults have toilet seats that comfy? Oh, probably because Mr. T would NEVER come out) and pray for a little pee pee.
We told her not to pee pee on her pony undies because the ponies would run away. If that were true, we would of had two run away ponies today. One wet, and one stinky. Poor ol' ponies. 

We tried to use stickers. That worked for about an hour the first day, and then she was on to us. She knew candies were available and we had to up the ante. I'm certain she knows I'll dole out any number of kitty cat candies for her to use that potty.
She's not new here.
Anyway, that's the word on the street in our world at the moment. Potty training is officially a full-time job. Wish us luck.
Send cat stuff.

Maybe this lady just wants some privacy? I'll try that tomorrow.