Hannah Kate loves shoes.
As a matter of fact, Hannah Kate has a lot of shoes. Given the choice of a new toy or a new pair of shoes, she will usually choose the shoes. And that's exactly what happened last Friday.After the adventures in potty training with Mason, let's just say I was less than excited about potty training Hannah Kate, especially considering the utter craziness and exhaustion that is our life lately. Besides, I fell hook, line and sinker for the ridiculous idea of potty training your child in a day with a series of potty parties . . . I bought the books. I took Mason to the store to pick out his salty treats intended to make him thirsty and sweet drinks to quench the thirst. I kept a large bag of M&M's on the potty. We did the potty training sticker chart. We locked ourselves in the house for a week without going anywhere. After all, that's what all the books said to do. I didn't buy the tee-tee baby though. Instead we pretended with Mason's favorite stuffed animal. Yes. I know now. Ridiculous. A YEAR AND A HALF later, Mason was potty trained. I mean, who in the world wouldn't want to go through that all over again, especially while building a house and living at MawMaw's house at the same time?!?
So. I have been avoiding potty training Hannah Kate like the plague. For every person who has said "girls are easier," there has been someone else to share a horror story. After all, for the past four years, ten months and two days, I have been changing diapers. Why change now? I did take a step in that direction around Christmas time . . . I bought some princess panties for Hannah Kate's Christmas stocking. They've been stuffed in the drawer underneath her socks and diaper covers ever since. But last week I decided we could perhaps graduate from diapers to pull-ups. I was about to run out of my stock of diapers so we picked up a package of pull-ups. And it just so happened that Friday was the day.
I put the pull-up on Hannah Kate - princess pull-ups, mind you - and told her in one quick breath that she wasn't supposed to tee-tee on the princesses but in the potty. Oh, and I forgot to mention that prior to this, Hannah Kate had NEVER tee-teed in the potty. So, as you can imagine, I wasn't expecting much. And then we were off.
I had to go to the electrical store to pick up the last remaining switches and light fixtures. Before we left, I took Hannah Kate to the potty. Nothing. But at least her pull-up was still dry. The next stop was lunch. Again, I took Hannah Kate to the potty. Nothing. But her pull-up was dry. Then we went to the piano store. Now, I'll admit that I was temporarily side-tracked and completely forgot about our great potty training experiment so we left without visiting the restroom. Lowe's was next. As soon as we got there, I took Hannah Kate to the potty. Nothing. But I was beginning to get hopeful, as her pull-up was still dry. Target was our next and final stop. I told Hannah Kate that she could pick out a prize, but she could not have it until she tee-teed in the potty. And that's when she spotted these hot pink bejeweled sandels.
She HAD to have them. They were only $9.99 so I threw them in the cart. We checked out. Hannah Kate wanted to hold the shoes, but I told her they had to stay in the bag until she tee-teed in the potty. Before we left the store . . . yep, you guessed it . . . we stopped by the restroom. And . . . guess what?!? I had to go back to the cashier and ask for a pair of scissors to cut the tags off those hot pink sandels because my girl did it . . . she tee-teed in the potty for the very first time. In a public restroom. At Target.
She loves her new shoes. I guess they are rather cute . . . in a gaudy, I'm-a-big-girl-now kind of way.
Of course, now we have a whole 'nother set of issues . . . it's always a major discussion regarding who is going to the potty first and who is going to flush the potty and who is going to use which potty . . .And have I mentioned how much I despise public restrooms . . . ?!?