Today Gabi is 16 months old

Today Gabi turned 16 months old. To celebrate we decided to start potty training Rachel. Again. I figured after yesterday’s adventure she has shown that she’s “ready.” We’ll see. We had less than an auspicious start to the day. I put Rachel on the potty when she woke up. Nothing. Ten minutes later she pees on the floor. An hour later I asked Rachel to tell me if she needed to use the potty. She assured me that she didn’t. Not totally trusting her I was going to take her to the potty as soon as I did something (I don’t remember what, but it was just a minute.) When I got back, she had peed. An hour later I was about to take her to the potty again, but again was just a minute too late. Each time I took her to sit on the potty anyway, and the third time she actually pooped in the potty.

Gabi took a great nap, but it was quite a bit earlier than normal. I put Rachel down for her nap/quiet time and Gabi was still asleep. About an hour later Gabi woke up. When I went in to get her up Rachel was still awake. Rachel said to me “My arm hurts. I need a doctor.” I let Rachel get out too without a nap because I didn’t want her to take her nap too late. That meant I had to try to get her through the late afternoon without falling asleep. I succeeded, but it wasn’t pretty. And she pee peed in the potty at that time. By late afternoon I had some really tired and really grumpy girls on my hands. I fixed dinner as quickly as I could (and it was delicious by the way) but I was constantly being interrupted by fighting, crying, hanging on me, etc. All the things that tired little girls are likely to do, and during all that keeping an eagle eye on Rachel to try to get her to the potty when necessary. By the way, I was successful. So I fed the girls, then we went outside and the girls enjoyed fudge bars. What can I say, I was trying to keep them happy until Jeff got home and I could put them to bed. (Jeff is working late this week because of a project they have to finish soon.)

While we were outside Rachel came over to me and I detected a hint of eau de toilet, a.k.a poop. I figured that was my cue to take the girls in and put them in the bath tub. I got them up to the bathroom, turned on the water, and the handle broke. This is not the first time this has happened, but it meant that I didn’t have any water in the tub. Being ingenious, I put enough water in the tub by transferring it from the sink using a cooking pot, just enough to get the girls cleaned up. Jeff got home at this time and thankfully he took over for me and got the girls to bed. Since Gabi’s nap was so early, and Rachel’s nap was non-existent, they both went to sleep immediately. Meanwhile, I was really looking forward to a shower, so I called a friend and they let me take a shower at their house. Needless to say, I’m tired and ready for bed!

Day 2 of potty training Rachel is tomorrow. I hope I can endure.