Following Her Lead

You know, being a follower is so underrated.

For instance, I learned too late in the game that you can not really lead a child to potty training.
I think the Hoos and I put in too much effort trying to get LP to use the toilet. We probably wasted a lot of energy cajoling her to sit her cute little tush on the pot. Because, all of a sudden, on December 19th, she just did it. She stopped whining, complaining and squirming and just stopped using diapers. Yesterday we had the potty party with some of her friends to celebrate and a good time was had by all. She still wears pull-ups at night, but I am not going to worry about that. We talk to her about staying dray over night, but beyond that, I am finally just going to follow her lead.

I also followed my friend Amy's lead last night. One of the mom's that attended the party, her kids are the same age as AK and LP. In fact, we consider her little boy AK's boyfriend. She told me that the night before she just stopped feeding Boyfriend at night. Instead of worrying about him waking up his sister, they put her in their room and let Boyfriend cry it out.

With a new found resolve, I did the same thing last night (except LP has her own room and I just didn't worry about AK waking her up). When AK woke up at 3:30 instead of being thankful we made it that long and just feeding her, I went in, put the paci in her mouth and ignored her pleading look and bobbing head as I scurried back out of her room. After less than 5 minutes her faint cries stopped. She made some sounds a few other times during the night after that, but since they stopped after less than 5 minutes, I didn't even have to get out of bed.

I didn't even mind when she called for me at 7. I (thanks to my engorged girls) was more than happy to feed her and play with her. And so far today her schedule has been great. She took a short nap in the grocery store and has been cheery and happy and cute the rest of the time.

This type-A girl might start taking the back seat more often...