Shame on me for combining these into one post, I know.  After two… taxing weeks home from vacation, we had a great weekend with Linnaea.  Mater was at wits end, dealing with Linnaea’s testing and general three-year old-ness, as well as a sudden reluctance – nay, denial – to potty on the, well… potty.  We had already played the nice game, and the bribery game, and the underpants game, and the no pants game…  The thing was, she was playing her own game, and she wasn’t sharing the rulebook.

But she started ballet (Creative Dance I) Saturday, and was told that in order to advance, and be a beautiful ballerina, she would need to potty in the potty every time.   Oh, and there was much excitement about the dance class, the whole week preceding class.  But a few blatant “accidents” during naptime to let us know who was in “control”.  Things changed Saturday after we returned from class.

First, she loves her class.  That’s all she talked about the rest of the weekend.  I think she will really look forward to class every week.  She has a great teacher, and, because of her maturity and… ability to be separated from her parents, she will probably get bumped into Creative Dance II after a couple more classes.  But, she has to be potty trained for that.

This weekend she refused to sit on the potty seat on the toilet, taking it off, and instead sitting on the toilet proper.  She kept her underwear clean and dry all weekend.  She woke up in the mornings with dry training pants too.  But she’s done that before.  No, the hurdle has been the poop.

But during nap time Saturday, we harkened to cries of excited jubilation that she had pooped, pooped in her potty!  Mater had moved Linnaea’s potty chair into her room during the week as a safety measure during diaperless naps.  A safety measure that was thumbed by a cute but petulant nose on more than one occasion.  But not so this time!  Linnaea had done the deed!  And again yesterday!!

I haven’t heard how today is going, now that it’s no longer the weekend.  It’s possible that she will punish us for my absence (she doesn’t like me going to work now) and flush the gains from the weekend.  But maybe not, because she is a beautiful ballerina!  And a super duper pooper!!