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Santa did come to our town the other day. The city we live in graciously provided free Santa photos and provided a room with coloring pages, etc in which to wait. They handed out numbers and took groups in an orderly fashion based on 15 minute intervals so you could go run your toddler around outside if being confined is just not their thing. It was a long wait even though we got there fairly early but it was worth it to not have to wait in line at the mall and pay a ridiculous amount of money for a picture of my child with Santa in this horrible economy. We just would have skipped Santa pics this year if we hadn’t gotten in on this deal.

It went better than I expected. I wondered how she would deal with a larger-than-life old guy showing interest in her (she doesn’t really like strangers all that much) but she did fine. She wouldn’t look him in the eye, however, and, when asked “What do you want for Christmas?” she replied “Want Mommy to tell you.” So Mommy told Santa what Tater Tot wanted for Christmas and we escaped with a cute picture of Tater Tot with a huge smile on her face, looking away from the camera and leaning away from Santa. I did, however, snap a cute shot with my camera in which she is actually looking at the camera so it’s all good.

All in all, this has been an enjoyable holiday season so far. Despite working like a madwoman because I waited too long to start the Christmas presents I’m sewing this year. Once they’ve been opened, I’ll post some pictures of the finished product for you all to see.

If you’d like to see some more of my handiwork, check out www.SnugglebugDesigns.etsy.com .

Nope. You’d think we would be by now. She is 2 3/4, you know. But, no. She still has no interest in potty training. I can barely get her to sit on the thing. I don’t push because I don’t want to set up a power struggle but, Good Lord, I’m ready for her to be out of diapers! She’s growing like a weed, has a fabulous vocabulary and ability to communicate, and will be in diapers until she’s 8, apparently. No, but really, I read something the other day that reassured me a bit and my sister’s kids both pottytrained at the later end of the spectrum so I’m not worried. Anxious to ditch the diapers? Yes. Worried? No.

So, in my reading, I came up with some markers that show your child is ready to potty train:

• Can walk and/or run steadily. I don’t know what running has to do with potty training unless it’s just so they can get to the potty quicker? But it’s there. From multiple sources.
• Urinates a significant amount at one time. Again, not sure why this is on the list but it is. My uneducated and compulsive-person guess would be that it’s just more efficient to pee all at once rather than keep running back to the bathroom but I’m sure that’s not it. Because that’s just crazy. Like me. Right?
• Has regular, well-formed bowel movements at relatively predictable times. That one’s a little more understandable, I guess. That way you can offer the potty seat to them around the time they should be pooping and give them a little taste of potty seat success!
• Dry periods of a couple hours at a time that show their bladder muscles are developed enough to “hold it”.Another pretty self-explanatory one. If they can’t hold it, they can’t make it to the potty seat in time.
• Doesn’t like the feeling of a dirty diaper and/or asks to be changed when he/she has one.
• Announces bowel movement before, during or after either with body language or words.
• Is able to pull pants up and down by themselves.
• Is interested is being toilet trained.
• Is generally in a cooperative stage yet shows a desire for independence.

That’s about it in a nutshell. Several of the items above are going on in our house but the most important one, interest in potty training, is lacking. We’ve talked about and gotten big-girl underwear, read books with potty sound effects, gotten special potty training stickers and incentive charts, sat her on her own potty seat, on the big potty, read books while on the potty. Nothin’. Not a drop. Not really sure why since, at 2, she was excited to use the potty and actually did use it successfully for a day or two. But the reality for this Mommy is that she is not ready. *Heavy sigh* Even though I most definitely am.