I think the worst of the drama is over. Last night Catie clung to me, screaming and crying “Mommy, it hurts!!” And after a few minutes of that, she finally produced a poop the size of a tennis ball. Which, OMG. Poor baby girl.

The other problem we’re having right now is that she was so distressed by the potty-training process and the sensation of pee running down her legs, that she’s now trying to hold her pee as long as possible. Which I suppose is a good thing, since it means that she’s learning how to go a long time in between trips to the bathroom. But she’s not going to the bathroom, we’ve let her go back to wearing diapers, and it seems like she’s afraid to use them. She holds it until she’s in pain, and again we start up with the screaming and the “Mommy help! Poop!” (It’s not poop, but the pressure in her tummy probably feels like it.) It’s awful because I hate seeing my little girl in pain, and there isn’t really anything I can do about it. She just needs to pee, and she’s scared to. So that sucks.

Seriously, who could stand to see that face go all sad and miserable?

I think that the one good thing about this failed attempt at potty-training is that it’s at least introduced the idea of using the potty into her mind. Catie has never been the type of child to adapt to something new really quickly. She was on the late side of the normal range when it came to crawling, walking, talking, laughing, and a whole bunch of other things. She is not the kid who’s going to jump into the deep end of the pool on her first try, and that’s totally and completely FINE with me. So we’ve let her know that this is something she needs to do; we often talk about all the big kids she knows who use the potty. She even goes through the list of all the neighborhood kids to check on their potty-usage status. (“Kenzie go potty?” “Yes, sweetie, McKenzie uses the potty.” “Jakey go potty?” “Yes, Jacob uses the potty too.” And so on.) It’s definitely on her mind a lot, but now I’m going to back off and give her some time to mull it over and decide when it’s time to try again. She’s a smart kid, she’ll let me know when she’s ready.

Other than that, the visit from my parents has been good. We went to the Life & Science Museum in Durham, which is so much fun. Catie loves the farm animals and the butterfly house, and although she was most excited to ride on the choo-choo train, she got freaked out when we went through the tunnel and all the kids screamed (at the train conductor’s instruction). But she had a lot of fun overall. We really should get a membership there, it’s such a cool place.

Oh, and my sister gets here tonight, so yay! Dave leaves for his trip to Seattle tomorrow morning – and yes, I am completely jealous that he’s going to Seattle without me, but I get to have my whole family here this weekend, so I guess that’s an ok trade-off.