Wednesday, March 25, 2009

How to totally regress in potty training while wasting $$

PULL-UPS.

Aaargh! Nuala has been doing pretty well with wearing her cute little panties and doing her business on the potty. UNTIL we decided Zachariah should bring her some Disney Princess Pull-ups back from Miami. She LOVES "pincess dappas" and when the ones my mom sent her ran out, we thought she'd love it if Daddy brought her some more. And she did. Too much.

(Happily sporting her cute little pink panties in a pre-Pull-Ups day. And carrying a mat on her back. The real reason we have children...free labor. Start 'em early!)

Now she refuses to wear her undies (even the new ones Daddy got her -- with Elmo!!), refuses to wear the nice, cheaper Costco diapers, and only wants to wrap her little bum in Princesses.

Which wouldn't be all bad, if she let them fulfill their purpose. They're Pull-ups. She's supposed to treat them like undies, right? Wrong. They're diapers and apparently feel cheated somehow if she doesn't pee in them. Or poo, of course. Have you ever tried to wrap a pooed-in Pull-up into a secure little ball? Not easy.

And her personality is such that she...what the heck...She's a tantrum-thrower! Ooooh, patience, Fiona, patience... Wow. That girl. See, I can't even think clearly...can't even put into words how my heart beats faster, how my stress levels go up, how I feel, yes, FEEL the years being whittled off my life when she decides something warrants a "fit". There are lots of things that warrant one. Lots. Oh, I love her to pieces, but she is really walking a fine line between being in time-out until she's 7 or just until she's 4. No, really, I'm working on reacting better...deep breath...Wow, how did this turn into a tantrum post? Oh, yes. So usually she gets to wear a princess diaper. Not only is it not a worth a battle (hey, I really don't mind if they run out quickly!), but if we wrangle her behind into one of the other options, she just removes it and then is naked. Which I don't care if she runs around naked, but naps/bedtime...gotta have a diaper.

Since starting this post (which was really on Tuesday, but I didn't finish it till now, and changed the date in post options...anyway...) we have hidden the pull-ups and only occasionally can "find" one. Hehehe... Seems to be working somewhat. The poor girl is convinced though that Daddy's going to go buy her more. She did dig out one of the Toy Story ones my mom sent for Bran (who is perfectly thrilled to remain in his normal diapers, and for the FIRST time today actually agreed to put on a pair of Cookie Monster undies. He looked so dang cute. Even walked around with his tallywhacker hanging out just for the novelty's sake.) and offered to wear it, but Bran was highly offended and shut her down.

So anyway...here's me shaking my fist at Pull-ups and the hold those pretty princesses already have over my daughter...at least they make her really, REALLY happy. That is definitely worth something.

11 comments:

David said...

I am Mom.... posting on Dad's spot...
Nice pic of the cute little girl wearing the cute panties, and hauling the big load :) tantrums? {why do I feel somewhat responsible for that? maybe I shouldn't've sent the Pull-ups!} let's see...hmmm, well, no, not her mother tooooo much, sometimes ... but we did have our share of tantrum-throwing episodes in our home I think... Surely you didn't think you'd get thru rearing children w/o some of that type of "fun" ... Oh, you should've had a pic of Bran w/his cute little undies too {with everything tucked in, of course:)}
Thanks for a good LOL b4 I head off for bed :) :) :) love you all, Mom (Dad too) xox

Sutton Family said...

I also HATE pull ups. Shivers of rage thinking about them. Wal-mart usually has a good selection of princess undies. Some of which even sparkle. The joys of potty training.... yech. I actually think I'm claustrophobic now because of potty training. Any where you go- having to go check out the potty... as you're bent over wiping a tiny bum those stupid automatic toilets flushing and spraying you right in the face because the stalls are so small... yech... Kan-dos are awesome though. I'd get some of those sent over to you...

Andrew said...

Fiona I feel your potty woes. I bought Mathias some McQueen Undies hoping they would encourage him to use the potty but no luck none of the old tricks are working... I know that evetually he will use the bathroom but it takes forever!!! P.S. I hate pull-ups too.
sari

heidi and Doug said...

lol note to self never buy pull ups sounds like a expensive way to potty train....
good luck maybe you should get nuala some pretty princess real undies....

Tara said...

lol, way cute picture! Sounds like Nuala knows what she likes! I hope hiding them works out...

Sara said...

Is it really bad that the though of potty training Woodstock sends terrors down my spine - moreso than any other parental responsibility?

I have nightmares of late that she'll decide the perfect time to potty train will be the minute she turns 2 - which will be about 10ish days after giving birth to Baby #2?

TERRIFIED.

Julie said...

I agree! Pull-ups are a terrible!!! They are just a way to get parents to spend more money by having kids stay in diapers longer. My mother in law thought that Paige would enjoy them when she was little, so she got her some princess ones. Yep, Paige loved them. Although she would only wear Jasmine. Nothing else.
You know the other really bad thing about pull-ups? Paige could NOT pull them up or down herself. She could take a diaper off, but not a pull-up. We used to put pull-ups on her when they had a habit of taking her diaper off at night. With a pull-up, they just couldn't do it.
Hang in there Fiona! Tantrums and battles are just no fun! I don't know what it would be like training 2 2 year olds at once to use the potty. Okay, I am being summoned...

Sutherlands said...

Well, I am not looking forward to potty training. That's for sure. Alex has started throwing tantrums, but I am hoping he doesn't turn into a "tantrum thrower." I guess only time will tell. Good luck with that one. At least Bran is kind of relaxed...

Rob and Erin said...

Ahh! So cute! The wonderful twos! Are you sure you're listening to Nuala? Maybe she feels like she's not getting her point across and that you're not taking her seriously :0) Haha! That was sarcastic, it's so hard to type sarcastically. Tantrums are hard on everyone involved. She and Brigit will get along splendidly, with all the princess play!

Shannon said...

Funny story. I would totally 'lose' the pullups, too.

Ashlee said...

Oh Fiona! I am totally feeling your pain! Except my daughter wanted the Dora pullups. Those dang cartoon characters!