Potty Training Boot Camp: Mid-Day on Day One

Sigh.

We've had zero true successes.

We had about five accidents on the kitchen floor. In at least two of them, we got at least one drop of pee, purely accidentally, in the potty as I snatched her up and quickly transferred her to the waiting potty.

In another accident, she actually started to pee again after being seated on the potty! But that was mid-morning, and she had at least two more accidents after that. So while it was exciting at the time, I'm a bit discouraged again.

I made up a potty song, if not a dance, as instructed by Babycenter.

I plagiarized the tune from some old ditty that I can't quite name but it's very familiar:

Calliope did a pee on the potty, doo dah!
Calliope did a pee on the potty, doo dah doo dah day!

Doo dah doo dah day,
Doo dah doo dah day,
Calliope did a pee on the potty,
Doo dah doo dah day!

I'm extremely clever and plan to substitute in "poop" for "pee" in the song, should that exciting event ever come to pass.

Anyway, I sang the pee song, with much enthusiastic clapping, whenever a drop of pee managed to land in the potty, and she totally loved it. I think it's good to heap on the praise, even for purely accidental successes, because that's what will motivate her to succeed.

Whether or not she's capable is another story.

I'm drawing comfort from my friend Emily, who successfully potty trained her daughter at this age, though with a more gradual approach. She is more zen than me.

As annoying as this approach is, I like the idea of being done in three days, more or less, one way or the other.

But I'm definitely irritable from sitting on the floor within arm's reach of Calliope all morning long, not to mention mopping up puddles. And it's possible I just ate a bunch of peanut butter cookie dough (stupidly purchased from middle school students who were raising money for victims of Hurricane Sandy... why I didn't just give them the $10, I'll never know) to comfort myself. I tried to just work out to make myself feel better, but I'm sore from workouts earlier in the week, and I think I need to take today's planned day off from exercise.

Oh well, due to napping (hooray for naps!!!), the afternoon session will likely be shorter than the morning's. Hoping for at least one (but more would be even better!) success to convince me to stay the course. Though I'm re-reading the SMC boot camp thread and am reminded, thankfully, that lots of initial accidents don't necessarily mean you can't have great success by the end of three days. Fingers crossed.