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My daughters are in the last stages of potty-training, and it's taking forever!

They are poop-resistant and hold their poops with remarkable focus and determination, admirable qualities in many other settings, but NOT with potty-training, at least as far as I'm concerned.

My husband and I feel a determination and a focus equal to our daughters about them not holding their poop.  We know that both of our girls are more than capable of pooping on the potty and that they even do it with glee.  We've backed off potty-training previously when we felt we were pushing them, but this time, well, it feels like we are the ones who are getting pushed around.

So we opted for the natural route and doled out a little dose -- a really little serving, like an ounce -- of prune juice every day.  That was helping because it made things feel a little, well, more urgent, if you know what I mean.

The juice was not their favorite part of our day, but they drank it with a little prodding and promises of dessert afterwards.  Suddenly, though, yesterday, Djuna gagged a little when drinking her prune juice.

And I'll admit it, this made me nuts.  I feel like we'll be lost without our miracle prune juice cure.

But, she only gagged once, and it was only a little, so we decided to try the prune juice again today.  Out of pure desperation, I found myself saying sharply, "Don't throw up!" when Djuna gagged a little again.

I now realize that sharply telling a child not to throw up is actually a guarantee that she will, and she did.  Just a little.

After wiping up a pukey skirt and watching my prune-juice-liberated daughter skip happily off to play, I remembered a previous post I wrote, where I pointed out that you cannot legislate bodily functions.  

Not any of them.