Poo-pawie?

When Abby wants to sit on the toilet, she says, "Poo-pawie?" Which translated is, "Poop in the potty?" But this always comes directly after she has already pooped, or she is trying to get out of bed time, or she is sick of being in her diaper. So, today I was in the bathtub and she was messing around in the bathroom and I saw the look come over her face. You know the one, that watery eyed, red cheeked look with the lips pooched out that said, "I'm going to poop and you are going to have to chase me around to change this diaper."

She has been doing this thing where she hides behind a wall in the kitchen to poop and then she runs from me knowing that I'm going to change her immediately because I hate the smell and I don't want her getting used to being in a messy diaper. I leaped from the bathtub, as fast as a huge pregnant woman can leap. I grabbed my somewhat frightened daughter, ripped off her pants and diaper and sat her on the big toilet. She was freaked into constipation.

I knew that poop was waiting to come out and I wasn't going to let it get the best of me. I put her training potty behind the kitchen wall, got her some wipes (her favorite just-sit-there toy) and sat her down, naked to learn what pooping in the potty really meant. I didn't want to scare her again so we played with wipes and we washed the wall. (Before you start thinking what a mean Cinderella step-mom I am, realize that these are her favorite activities...) We scrubbed carpets and jumped around in blissful naked freedom. Several times, the look crept back onto her face and I would rush her back to sit down armed with a juice box to get the pipes moving and keep her from being scared about what we were doing. Finally, she got the idea that when she started to feel that way, she was to sit and she would rush there herself only to lose that feeling and run off to jump some more. Finally, after an hour and a half, she sat down just in time for the poop to rush out INTO THE POTTY!!!! She was scared at first that she had done something wrong with me sitting right there but as she sat, I praised the heck out of it. I smiled and clapped and made a general fuss. She got excited also and after a good wipe down, celebrated with me. So maybe we have closed the lid on what it feels like to poo-pawie. But I'm not sure. We will try again tonight and every day of break after that.