Maybe I am wrong

My previous post about how Lana is such a stubborn, slow to transition kid was a tad bit whiny, I know. I think Lana is trying to prove me wrong--no not about the sleeping thing, she is still Miss Stubborn about that, but she has been making some serious forward movement with the potty with very little pressure from me. Bribes, yes, pressure no. M&Ms for pee and the coveted "licks" Tootsie Pops for poo. I realize many kids at 2.5 are already potty trained and a bunch are not even interested and its all good, either way. Lana has been peeing on the potty for a while now, but very inconsistently, probably b/c if she is wearing a diaper or Pull-Up she will just go in it. If she is nude or in panties, she will ask to go or just go in the potty by herself. The big holdup has been that she will not poo in the potty b/c she says its scared even though she looks at the Tootsie Pops, unwraps them, smells them and says, "These are for poo poo in potty". The other issue is that she will only go on the little Bjorn potty, not the big potty, which pretty much means we are not going in any public bathroom, unless I find a way to fashionably turn a Bjorn potty into a purse. Just this week, as I am complaining away about sleep and sippy cups, she told me she wants to wear panties at night. I agreed, but I pulled out spare sheets and jammies, just in case I had to do a middle of the night change. She did great--stayed dry all night, peed in the little potty in the AM. She has been doing this for about a week with no accidents! Then just today she climbed up on the big potty (we have a cushy ring thingy for her) and she peed--twice! And the first one was when Bill was home so we did a huge happy dance of congratulations. It was very exciting. Okay, that sounds weird, to be so excited about potty training, but like I said it came during a week where I was feeling like every transition was a battle, Lana totally surprised me.

To update you all on the sleep issue (I know, the excitement never ends). We got a CD player in her room and the new routine is 3 books, 2 songs for me to sing. Then lights out, CD of classical music on and I leave the door open while I sit in the hallway where she can see me. No talking, no requests. She has been doing pretty great at getting to sleep by herself, although when the lights first go out, she tries every request in the world, "Mommy, I got a BIG problem", "Mommy, I dropped something" "Mommy sing one more song". I just say nothing. I think its progress in that she is getting to sleep by herself, and there is no crazed screaming. But I am still killing a lot of my time sitting outside her door. In a few days I hope to not be sitting outside the door, but I suspect there will be a good amount of protest. Hey, at least the potty training seems to be going well.