And again, a warning - if you don't care to read about Ruby's bathroom goings-on, then don't read this post.
Anyway, remember way back when, when I said that Ruby had finally done the #2 deed in the pot and I felt that my day had come? My day hadn't come - that was just a teaser.
The one good thing I can say about the PTing process with Ruby is that she never had accidents - never, ever, ever. (OK, maybe once). She was the type to hold it in til she had a diaper on. Yeah yeah, I've written about this before. But I'm tellin' ya, there was no way to deny that girl a diaper. There just wasn't. Trust me.
So, once #1 had been achieved we knew what our next hurdle was. We figured one day she'd just decide to do #2 in the pot (like she had with #1) and that would be that. Well, by this point in the story she's 3 and everyone's looking at us askance. No, actually, no one was but I felt askance about it and just wanted it done!
At some point, my mom gave me an article by John Rosemond (whom we both sort of love and hate for his practical but sarcastically delivered parenting advice), the jist of which said to corral your kid in the bathroom til they go. This did not work. One can't poop when hysterical. So much for that.
So, onto the next little trick. The cut-up pull-up. For anyone reading this who hasn't diapered a child in a little while, a pull-up is basically a diaper without the straps on the side. It's like underwear with absorbent diaper-stuff inside.
So where were we? Ruby would do her deed in a diaper or pull-up, but not straight on the potty. She'd be in the bathroom, sitting on her potty, but had to have a diaper on. So, I first cut a big enough hole in the pull-up so that things could be deposited into the potty. That went well enough. I gradually made the hole bigger and bigger until the only step left was to cut the legholes off altogether, leaving us with a wide waistband:
And all is well! That's right, in order to poop in the potty, Ruby just pulls this "diaper" on (like a belt! HAHAHA!!!) and sits down and takes care of business. If you carefully inspect the picture, as I'm sure you're wont to do, you might notice some first aid tape which I used to seal the cut edges, lest some absorbent granules fall out on the floor and make a mess.
My plan is to gradually reduce the width of the waistband until even Ruby realizes how ridiculous it is to be putting on this accessory before using the john and then we can call it 100%.
