Potty training..two words that have been on Maa’s mind for the past 6 months and even more.
Maa did not research or read this much about her entire pregnancy as she did for this one milestone in Buzz’s life. So there were signs of whether the kid is ready or not, various do’s and don’ts, things you should/could/would buy to facilitate a quick turnaround (err.. fully potty trained kid). Research in hand Maa figured Buzz was ready, but her teachers in daycare were not. (Maa was not at all relieved to have to postpone the process? It was not her fault that Buzz was not trained. She wanted to, really she did. It was all Buzz’s daycare’s fault).
Came a day when daycare teachers said ‘Yes, let’s do it’. Maa was also planning a trip to India. The last time she went to India, Buzz was 3 months old and she got a lot of flak for putting diapers on the three-month old. ‘Why tie the kid up all day long. Let them be.” Maa shuddered to think what she would have to hear if Buzz was not trained by the time they headed out. As expected, Maa started hyperventilating. All notes were revised (links revisited), tips and tricks noted down. Then the daycare teacher dropped another bomb..
Whenever ready, go cold turkey. Get rid of diapers in one go.
WHAT..but the carpeted floors!
..Maa spluttered. Nothing doing, there was not buzzing them off.
The coming weekend was mentally checked off, the back was strapped* (it still hurts from the back issue months back) on the day off, the diaper came off and prayers in earnest started. Well Maa refuses to talk about the number of pants that were washed that day (5-6) and how little success was achieved (NONE) and how relieved she was that she was allowed to put a diaper on at nap time (VERY). Paa being the sane one in the family (oh how Maa hates to say that) talked to her about how sick she was (Maa had a bad cold, stuffed nose and was generally feeling miserable) and could she not postpone this thing called potty training till she got a little better.
Aah made perfect sense (anything to postpone the darn thing). The trip to India got postponed. Another reason to take a deep breath.
A couple of months down the line, friends with kids around Buzz’s age started to put up Facebook status like ‘To do it or not’ (Oh FB! how Maa hates thee). The panic returned. The back belt brought out AGAIN. Maa picked a weekend that Paa was out-of-town (did not want him messing things up. The last time midway ditching of the effort was his fault after all).
Saturday morning: Diaper came off. Buzz was made to sit on the pot every half an hour. No matter how many times and how long she sat there, she went 5 mins after she got off the pot. Pants were washed. 1 success in the evening just before they were to go to a friend’s place for dinner (bribe being she gets to take a bath if she went in the pot. The kid loves her ‘nahaie nahaie’ time or what). Big celebration on the success (there was dancing, singing, jumping..err all by Maa).
Not following the plan, diapers came on. Maa really, truly did not want Buzz to mess up the carpet at the friend’s place (Maa swears, it was not because she was too tired to clean up). Buzz fell asleep in the car on their way back. Nighttime diapers are allowed. (YAY! done for the day)
Sunday: Diaper came off. Buzz kept asking her them. Maa had a brain wave,
Diaper to baby pehente hein. Aap baby ho kya?**
Nooooooooo
End to the demands for a diaper. Commence holding on, not going for 3+ hours. One semi accident where Buzz was seen running to the bathroom when she could hold on no more. So half in, half out. Celebrations were huge, irrespective. More holding for hours but grudgingly going just in time, happened. Maa also had a realization that the poor little thing was not comfortable sitting on the pot since she did not know where to keep her legs, plus all the colorful fishes on the baby seat which goes on top of the pot (which Maa had bought with so much love and enthusiasm) were distracting. Buzz would spend all her time finding the blue, pink, purple, yellow, orange, green fish rather than going about her business. Out came the portable potty that Nani had got, oh so many years ago, when she first found out that Maa was pregnant. Easy to sit, legs firmly placed on the ground, Buzz would still hold out as long as she could but would go when she really had to.
Monday: Off to daycare in her new big girl underwear. Maa was so very glad to hand over the rest of the day and potty training efforts to the daycare teachers (bad bad Maa). At the end of the day as she enters the class dreading the number of clothes she would have to take home to wash and the horror stories she would get to hear, she spied Buzz in the pants she wore that morning. No accidents, not one! Buzz would hold on for a few hours and then run and go on her own, Maa was told.
And so it went on for the rest of the week with Buzz going with more and more ease.
This was the weekend before last and all of last week.
Celebration time right? But Maa and Paa are mean. They wanted to test the little baby before calling her fully potty trained, so what did they do? They took Buzz out for a long drive (well they were mostly tired of the rain and went chasing the sun, but tell that to a one week only potty trained kid). Drive, stop, eat, run around, drive back..total of 9 hours, with stops every hour and a half to two hours. The result you ask? Buzz came back with flying colors. Not one single accident!
Maa would ask her every now and then, ‘Buzz, potty?’, to get the look of, ‘are you crazy woman! We are in a moving car. How am I to go potty?’ Only to go the minute the car was stopped and the cute little butt touched the toilet seat.
For extra credits: Kids take way longer for nap time training and night-time training, since they have less control then. Buzz has had a dry diaper all week when she gets up from her nap. And she has had an empty diaper 3 days in a row when she got up in the morning.
For extra extra credits: Since Maa tortured her so much during the entire weekend and Paa was the good person who was not around, he has been designated as the official ‘take-me-potty-and-clean-me-up-after’ person. 😀
PS: Maa still cannot believe it could be this easy and is waiting for the disaster that everyone talks about.
*kamar kastan??
**Baby wears a diaper. Are you a baby?
