Preschoolers & Potty Training
Early the other morning I went running – well, half walking/half running. I’ll wait for my family to stop saying “Whaaaat?” (See here for why I’m running.) It was barely rainy, and I felt really good afterward. But I’d understretched the previous run and I wanted to make sure I remedied that to avoid shin issues. The kids were supposed to still be asleep, so I stayed in the sunroom and had just started stretching when I heard Ellie yelling from the bathroom.
“Mommy! Daddy! MOMMY! DADDY!”
Crap. Most likely literally. Why won’t she wipe her butt by herself yet? Ugh…she in preschool, and she knows how!
“MOMMY! DADDY!” She came running out of the bathroom, fully clothed and very excited. “Matthew had to go pee and poop on the toilet and now he’s washing his hands and I’m going to let him wear underpants!”
Oh, did I mention Matthew is mostly potty trained? He’s still in a diaper at night, but during the day he’s pretty solid. Anyhow, he and Ellie had been having a sleepover together, and apparently he woke up and told Ellie he needed to go to the bathroom. Rather than wake Sharon up, or perhaps because she didn’t get up fast enough, Ellie took Matthew into the bathroom, took off his pants and diaper, got him on the toilet, and he peed and pooped. The diaper even ended up in the garbage can. WOW!
Then it dawned on me – she doesn’t wipe her own poopy butt.
“Hey Ellie, who wiped Matthew?”
“I did!”
Uh oh. When I got to the bathroom Matthew was standing at the sink washing his hands. Without pants. And I’m not sure what Ellie had wiped, but it didn’t appear to have been anywhere near his butt. There was no confirmed poop anywhere else in the bathroom other than the toilet, but the bath mat went into the laundry anyway. And the stools got a good cleaning.
But seeing how proud the two of them looked as they strutted out of the bathroom was worth it.
