OK, so I know Charlotte just turned 2 like, 2 weeks ago, which means it's probably too soon to start potty training. She's starting to do some of the things that "they" say to watch out for--asking for a diaper change, wanting to sit on a potty, trying to dress and undress herself--but I still feel like she's not quite there yet. I've been trying to move her in that direction; I taught her the sign for "potty," and she can use the sign and say the word, and we say and sign it whenever it's time for a diaper change, but I'm not sure she's made a clear connection between the word and the act yet.
Still, when I was changing her diaper after her "nap" today, she looked at me and shook her little fist back and forth in the "potty" sign, and I thought what the heck. So we brought her little potty chair out into the living room, set up her wipes next to it, and she spent the next several hours running around as naked as a jaybird. She sat on her potty several times, but never "went" in it...and we had a few accidents. After she had an accident, she'd cry and run back to sit on her potty, so I know she makes the connection between the potty and its purpose--she's just not anticipating the need for it, as it were. It's ok though. Baby steps.
There are times, like today, when I'm honestly not sure I'm going to make it through toddlerhood. Charlotte has always been an easygoing kid, and I've had a pretty smooth run so far with her. The so-called "terrible twos," however, might be an entirely different story. This stage of a child's life is marked by a serious lack of patience, which leads me to believe that I myself have never outgrown the toddler phase. When Charlotte wants something, she wants it now, nevermind the fact that she lacks the language skills to communicate exactly what it is that she wants. She'll ask for juice, then launch into hysterics when you don't give her milk. She demands to brush her teeth, then hurls the toothbrush to the floor as soon as you hand it to her. She insists most emphatically on a specific pair of pajamas, but gets upset that she can't put them on all by herself. She just doesn't have the patience to wait or learn what she needs to know to accomplish her goals. And I get that, because I don't have the patience to wait for her to learn it either!
Which, yes, probably puts me in the front running for the Worst Mommy of the Year Award. And I do love my child more than my own life, but sometimes I think I was not cut out for this. I do see a huge difference in her reactions when I just step back and let her do it herself compared to when I try to just shove her arms into the shirt and be done with it...I just have a really hard time getting msyself to be patient enough to do that every time. Today was particularly difficult, as you may have guessed, because I had a ton of housework to do and Brian is sick in bed, so it was just me and the kid and a house that was so filthy I couldn't stand it anymore (thanks Loki). Let's just say that a naked, rambunctious toddler who hasn't taken a nap isn't a fun housecleaning companion, and let's also say that I didn't get a whole lot done. I was NOT a Patient Mommy today, unfortunately, and there were many times when I should have been. I have no idea how single moms do it...hell, sometimes I wonder how any mom does it! They are my heroes--those moms who have managed to raise children for millenia before me and not end up in the loony bin. I can't wait for the threes, and then starting elemtary school, and then adolescence and raging hormones, and the teenage years...maybe I should book my padded room now!
