Month 13: First Tooth

First tooth  makes an appearance — the bottom left!   That’s about the same age I got my first.   She is also currently learning to walk and babble-talk,

All of this activity really keeps her busy and she doesn’t signal so obviously all the time and relies on me to remember pit stops.    As I have said before, I equate it to when we adults get so interested in something that we’ll put off a potty break until the next commercial, or intermission, or when we pay for our purchases — we just have the stronger muscles that she hasn’t yet matured into and so she has accidents.  And sometimes we forget to pick up the slack.   This is not a negative or setback.  On the contrary, it shows her understanding that I am there to help.

Our children rely on us to take responsibility when they can’t.  It’s no different than helping her walk sometmes even though she can do it herself — sometimes they just need to have their hands held.  I am only one half of the equation she needs to cooperate — only she has control over her bladder.  I’m just the transport system!

Mornings fare fine.  It’s the  evenings that are still more challenging.   We are accident free all day and all night, but that 6pm to 10pm window is accident prone!  But on the flip side of the coin, she holds more longer so there is no need to eliminate as often as when she was small.     The cotton training pants are sufficient to contain an accident (of course her pants get wet, but she also will stop mid accident if she can and waits to finish on the potty).     I am not doing an extra laundry load or anything.

We went on a scenic train ride on October 9 and she stayed dry the whole ride.  We had one accident just after lunch.  I left her potty in the car and she has a hard time on the big toilet without a travel potty and wouldn’t (or couldn’t) go.    I should have peed her in her potty before we went for lunch.    I really wish they made toddler sized public loos like in the elementary schools.   How different things would be if this were a EC centered modern culture!

I’ve got one travel potty seat I need to try, but there is another that I think will be a better fit on the toilet.   If that isn’t pleasing I’ll try the tupperware trick again.

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In hindsight, I should have started carrying the travel potty with me long before this month to get into the habit of having it even if she didn’t use it right away.