princess on her throne...

There are some milestones where everyone seems to have their own idea as to when it's supposed to happen. The one in question? Potty training. Some folks claim their child is potty trained before age 2, others say that they're child was 3 before it happened. While I'm not sure we're ready for full swing potty training, I figured it couldn't hurt to get a potty into the house awhile and take it from there.

Jamie and I took a trip to Target to look for a slide (you have no idea how hard it was to find a reasonably priced plastic slide contraption, but that's another story). While we're there, we pass the potties and figure we'd take a look. I wasn't prepared for the array of potties lined up on the shelf. Some were incredibly basic - pretty much a "pot to piss in". And others were terribly ridiculous. A potty that sings, cheers you on, has a face, etc? The grown-up toilet doesn't do that. Doesn't that result in a let down when she finally sits on the big potty and realizes that it won't clap for her when she goes? She'll end up on the singing potty for life.

We spot an adorable frog one that seemed reasonably priced. We put it on the floor in the middle of the aisle and tell her to "sit on the froggie." Our little Alexis loves to sit. Simply the act of sitting seems entertaining. Our living room has three chairs, and when she's bored of those, she'll sit on a step or what-have-you. So getting her to sit on the frog wasn't hard at all. Unfortunately, the frog wasn't practical. The eyeballs of the frog were sticking up in the front (to keep rogue tinkle in, I assume). Had there been one eye, it might have worked, but two eyes made it difficult for her to get her hiney over and on. Darn.

Then there's a red Baby Bjorn jobby. This brand makes the incredibly expensive baby carriers, and that pricing strategy seems to branch over into the potty world too. For $25, you get a beautiful red potty with a nice high back (for those times when you simply want to lounge.) "Sit on the red one." She slowly backs up her butt while looking behind her, plops on it, and looks quite comfortable. To make sure we were getting a proper comparison, we said, "now sit on the froggy." She obliges, getting up and trying her hardest to maneuver the eye balls. "Ok, back on the red one." Up on over and it's obvious it's the winner.

The whole time, the poor thing is sitting on the potties in the middle of the aisle and people are walking on by. Imagine if we were to start sitting on all of the toilets at Lowe's as we evaluated what to buy. People would look at us strangely. But with her, there were a few small smiles as folks looked down the aisle, then down at the little miss, and then went along their way.

We'll see when we get started. For now, it's in the bathroom and she'll come in when one of us is "going" and sit on it, hanging out until we're done. Last night, she got angry with me because I wouldn't let her bring the potty into the living room. Heaven forbid. At this point, it's just another cozy, ergonomic seat with a high back. All in good time...