Mental Cobwebs

We potty trained Emerson a month after she turned two years old. My wife had a sure-fire plan to make the entire process as painless as possible. We bought at least 30 pairs of underwear at once, lost the diapers, and stuck her on the toilet at the slightest sign of an accident.

That first day she peed in 13 pairs of underwear, but with each subsequent day the number dwindled. Before the end of the first week she was only having an occasional accident. We were out of the woods it seemed; finally free of the annoyance of changing diapers.

Now, as Emmy approaches her third birthday, it seems that old annoyance has reared it's ugly head again. For some reason we keep dealing with incidents where she doesn't quite make it to the potty in time -- at least once or twice a day. It's gotten pretty stressful, mostly because I have no idea what is causing it or how to make it stop.

I can't really get a straight answer out of her about why she's doing it. If I ask her if she is holding it in because she doesn't want to stop playing she says yes. If I ask if she's peeing in her underwear because her cousin doesn't use the potty she says yes. She pretty much just agrees with anything I come up with.

Sometimes it's hard to know what the best solution is when it comes to parenting, and this is certainly one of those times. You just have to barge forward, try your best, and hope that the kid doesn't come out of it scarred for life.

Emerson, if you're 30 years old and you cry every time you have to go to the bathroom, holding yourself in the fetal position on the floor as you soil your pants, well, then, I'm sorry. At least you can look back on this blog post and know that I tried my best.