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I am in the throes of potty training.  I can safely say that potty training is my least favorite party of motherhood.  I'm simply not very good at it. 

I will put my 3-year-old in big boy pants at the beginning of the day with the instructions, "Okay.  If you feel like you need to go pee-pee what do you do?"

"I go to the big boy potty."

And then we go off about our morning, eating Cheerios and sippy coffee out of a Buzz Lightyear mug (me, not my child.)  I get busy doing stuff like the laundry and cleaning the Chi-Chi cage.  In our house, Chi-Chi's are our two guinea pigs, Pickle and Olive.  When the Monkey was a little more than 1-year-old, he pointed to their cage and said, "Chi-Chi" and the name has stuck ever since. 

In the middle of my chore madness, I notice that the Monkey is naked (i.e., no longer wearing his big boy pants) which only means one thing--he has had an accident. 

Sure enough, in his bathroom I find the Buzz Lightyear panties (Buzz is huge at our house right now) in the trash.  If I'm lucky, they're only wet, unlike days like yesterday, when I wasn't so lucky.

"Sweetie?  What are you supposed to do if you need to go pee-pee or poopy?"

"I go to the big boy potty."

Something is obviously getting lost in translation.

We have good potty training days.  Those are usually the ones when I actually remind him to go.  I of course bribe him with candy to do it.  It seems to be working.  He ate about six lollipops today.

The start of preschool is forcing me to move more quickly.  The Monkey can't move up into the 3-year-old class until he's potty trained.  Everyone keeps saying, "Oh, don't worry.  He won't go to college wearing diapers."  Forget college.  At the pace he's moving he'll never get out of preschool.

He's doing better.  He's been going to the big boy potty more and more on his own, which is a good thing since I can't seem to remember to tell him to go.  His big brother is even getting into the act, running excitedly to tell me that his brother went pee-pee in the potty.  For a brief moment I was touched by his interest in his sibling until he said, "He needs a prize.  Can I have one too?"  He's already figured out how to ride on the coat tails of his brother's success.

So to add to my daily chaos, I've been doing lots of little loads of laundry and handing out way too much sugar, but like all things in motherhood, this too shall pass.  (Pun intended.)