Potty Training Weekend

Let me begin this post by saying that I just googled pictures of "potty training" since we haven't taken any pictures of our own.   Every single one of those pictures includes a toddler that is contentedly sitting on the potty, smiling/laughing while sitting on the potty, and/or reading a book happily with a parent while supposedly also learning to be a "big" girl or boy.  Who takes these clearly misleading and false pictures?  Where are the tears?  Where are the puddles of pee?  Where are the exhausted parents who are pulling their hair out and sneaking shots from a flask? (Or in my case, scoops of Ben & Jerry's from the freezer.)

The past 2 days (has it only been 2 days?!), Blake and I have undertaken the challenge of introducing Presley to wearing big girl undies and using the potty.  She has shown a lot of interest in the past few months, so we figured we would give it a shot.  I know there are many opinions out there about how this should be done and when a child is ready.  We do not want to push her or make this more stressful than necessary, so we have been tempted to quit several times in the last 48 hours.  However, as soon as we are ready to quit, she does something that renews our hope.  I won't get into the details of her tallies for poop and pee.  (Though, if you are a parent and you are interested then let me know.  I can talk pee pees in the potty with the best of them.)  I will say that she probably wet 30 pairs of underwear yesterday and around 20 today.  Some of those pairs only worn for 2 or 3 minutes.  Talk about exasperating!  But she is showing baby steps of progress, so we're not giving up... yet.

Right now I think of diapers with fond longing.  Oh, how easy it was to just take some extra diapers and leave the house.  How nice it was not to have to think about her bodily functions every moment of every day.  However, I understand that diapers are frowned upon in elementary school, so we will keep going with our efforts.  I would ask for advice, but at this point I just want someone to tell me that we will get through this and look back on it and laugh.