potty training

At Mama's group the other day, I asked for advice about potty training Gemma. I got a bunch back, some helpful and some less helpful. It's hard to give advice when it's different for every kid. It's turning out to be an interesting process. In fact, just as I started writing this post, Gemma started taking her diaper off - while she was peeing, thus getting pee all over the place. Obviously, she's starting to get it but she has yet to put her pee in the potty. When I suggested she sit on the potty this morning (night time diaper completely dry) she refused and cried really hard. When she knows she needs to pee, she asks to put a diaper on. She pees in her diaper, takes it off and then hands it to me. But then three days now, the first day being the day I was asking for advice, Gemma has put her poop not in her diaper. She made it in the potty twice and on the floor once. Progress, right? Let's hope so. I was so proud of her with the first poop. Something tells me, though, that once she gets it, she'll get it and have few accidents. This girl does not fit the typical mold, that's for sure!

Here's a picture (word picture that is) of our morning. Tired (exhausted) Mama sitting on a green plastic chair on the deck in the woodsy and messy backyard, crocheting a hat - a project she's not particularly enjoying but wants to finish nonetheless. Two teenage boys having a pine cone war, pine cones flying every which way and boys dodging, throwing, jumping, running. Two and a half year old wandering around eating Saturday candy, repeating the same things over and over again, taking pants on and off, sitting on the potty, getting up again and finally putting a poop in the potty (yay, Gemma!). One year old wandering around, crawling some, taking a few steps here and there, never straying too far from Mama but having fun playing in the dirt. Eric upstairs steadily grading finals - graduation tomorrow, grades due early next week. I sat there thinking that I'd like to remember this moment and noting how I felt like a still point amongst the chaos.