Music A-pee-ciation

Last Sunday, while cooing over Jeff and Loni's new little princess, Princess #1 was getting some face time with John's mother in the lobby.

She pointedly told Ingrid, "Poopy" and grabbed at her behind. Ingrid checked her and found her clean.

"No poopy," Ingrid responded, smiling at Sprite.

Sprite said once more, "Poopy."

Then, she walked away from us and over to a wall of windows where she sat on the low sill and proceeded to prove that she did indeed have a retort in her shorts.

That Sunday became a red letter day. Sprite is ready (I hope) to start potty training. (If she isn't, I figure we've screwed up a couple of times already with milestones, this shouldn't push us too far over the edge.)

Since then, every night after dinner, we've been placing Sprite on her potty for five minute sessions. I was told by someone (she has 5 kids, she's an expert in my opinion) to start doing these sessions after a meal since the food pushes everything through a bit and increases the urge to go. (I could have left that part out, right?)

Since we started doing this, we've hit a small snag. This particular potty has music, so when Sprite's butt meets the seat, it automatically starts a song and catchy jingle. (Catchy enough that it resounds in my head when I sit down for a pee break myself.) On Tuesday, I noticed just like Monday, that when the song would begin, Sprite would get up from the seat and start dancing like some bottom baring hippie.

Well, learning from the rug incident, I didn't think that was a good idea to have dance breaks. So, Wednesday, smart mom that I am, I turned off the music setting. Sprite came in, disrobed with my help, and sat down. Hm. Something wasn't right. She got up, looked behind her, and then sat down again.

Nothing. Her eyes swung to mine in question. Dude, where's my music?

I smiled back, blatantly ignoring her look. "Yay, Sprite! Can you go pee-pee? Pee-pee for a sticker!"

Sprite stood up again and pulled on the "tank" of the toilet to expose the back end and the switch for the music. She unerringly went straight for the switch and turned it "on".

"Hi there, big kid, welcome back! You're so smart, you're right on track! Take your time and concentrate, going potty's just so great!"

She danced, rocking out and sitting on the potty only to trigger the music once again.

And proud of herself for outsmarting Mommy, she still took a sticker.

"Sticka!" she said, holding it out to show me, rubbing it in.

(Kid, I'm letting you keep the sticker, but if you think that's going on your chart, think again.)

Comments

[Allinole]

How funny! Looks like you are going to have to take those batteries out!

Sprite is incredibly smart. Hopefully she will get the potty thing down soon.

[Kirsten]

Oh I laughed at the bare bottom hippie thing.. Meggers has been bouncing up and down like a toddler saying "shake your booty baby" really I don't know where she gets it from (shakes booty)..lol
A potty that plays music what will they think of next. Is Sprite at least going on the potty a bit?
Maybe holding diaper and saying poopy was her way of saying I need the potty mommy, but you already thought of that and I'm being one of those annoying mommy advice people aren't I? Ok I'll stop now..lol

[HeatherPride]

We got one of those song-playing potties too, but my son refused to sit on it for any "bidness" purposes. He just liked to hear it sing too. So we ended up just taking it out of the bathroom and letting him sit on the big people potty. That kid never has been easy!

[Lisa]

That is hilarious!

Oh my gosh...I laughed so hard at this.

Jonathan does not seem interested one little bit in using the potty. he thinks it is to put his toys in.

Oh well. Maybe soon.

And he would do the exact same thing with the dancing if it had a music setting I bet.

[Laurie]

That Sprite is one smart cookie! It never ceases to amaze me what little kids can do.

I struggled to potty train my son for over 6 months. I started when he was 2 and a couple months - the first time - and then waited until he was three. Finally just before he was 3 1/2, he actually got it.

So with my second - I just waited. Started about two months after her 3rd birthday and she was totally trained in 5 days. (we did do the whole 5 minutes on the potty every night thing, but didn't really expect anything out of it)

Guess you just gotta wait 'til they're ready. Look at it this way - at least Sprite is learning new skills...turning music on!

[WickedStepMom]

I suddenly no longer feel left out on the baby days... Though watching a toddler butt wiggle would be hilarious!

[Wendy]

Noah danced to it, too, when he was about 18 months old. He was potty trained, but then went to The Other's house and it was never to happen again until he was about 3 1/2. He would overhear me talking about it and would tell me, "I'll do it when I'm ready." After I had Tess I refused to change a poopie diaper because I had just asked him if he needed to poop. I only made him wait 10 minutes, but he cried the whole time. Then I used a sticker chart.

To teach Maritessa, I gave her coins for her piggy bank. She got 5 for pee-ing, and 10 for pooping. When she "filled it up" she got to "buy" a new Barbie. And I kept her in regular panties, too, so she wouldn't be tempted. It made a lot of laundry and spot cleaning, but it was worth it.

Good luck!