In a bid to do it right, we made sure we got all of the right paraphernalia for the toilets to make them little-human friendly: seats and steps (colour co-ordinated of course), scented toilet wipes with an obligatory child friendly animal on, a book about the process (one for us and one for her), stickers for rewards and even (and this is my favourite) pink water. Despite all of this it turns out that what really made the difference was timing. We tried a month or two ago but she wasn't interested. We persevered shortly but then gave in. The old adage: she'll do it when she's ready - is true again!
But over the past two or three weeks, we've been led by the little lady and she's just about cracked it. Don't let me underestimate the packs of raisins or the amount of chocolate buttons we've been through when the reward chart just wasn't cutting it. We all know a bribe works a treat but she really has been quite super and leading us over this hurdle herself. With only one or two misdemeanours, it had been relatively trouble free when house bound.
This past week we've been adventurous in as much as we've taken the show on the road. For the first two weeks of September we didn't venture very far beyond the house without some 'pull ups' - just in case. But this week, I bit the bullet and went for it. On Thursday, we went for our usual swimming session. We used the facilities without any problems before we went for our morning splash and even had a quick dart out when the little lady alerted me with her holler of 'weeee daddy!'. I was feeling pretty smug as we made our way to the showers. Little did I know what was about to follow!
Initially, using the public toilets presented a huge challenge in that the little lady feared she was going to be swallowed by the vast hole that she had to balance vicariously above but she seems to have overcome this over the past few attempts. With this in mind, she happily jumped up onto the loo after we'd showered. All was well until she suddenly grabbed onto the dangling red emergency cord and pulled, which sent echoes of 'code red - all personnel to the the pool side toilets' emanating around the whole of the leisure centre. I was mortified!!
After whipping her swiftly off the loo and wrapping her back up in her towel, I managed to clamber to the door in enough time to calm the stampeding crusaders who all had first aid kits at the ready and informed them that it, in fact, was a false alarm - 'no code red here!'.
Needless to say, as we've entered any other public convenience this week, I've been incredibly cautious to check the exact position of the dreaded red cord!
On a more successful note, the training is going well and, after a week of dry pull ups at night, we be throwing caution to the wind so to speak and trying big girl pants tonight!