. . . or rather, Lily has potty power.  For those of you who don't know the story, it goes like this . . .

Last summer, when I was at my parent's house (Kevin was at training in Texas, and so Lily and I lived with them), I decided it was the perfect time to potty-train Lily.  I had just finished the sick phase of my pregnancy with Derek, and we had 2 months before we were moving to Georgia.  I thought it was ideal, especially because, what else did I really have to do at the time?  So we worked hard all of August and September.  She was doing amazingly, and all she needed was an orange Tic-Tac to motivate her.  In fact, she rarely even had accidents.  Then we moved.

Toddlers have a hard time with change.  Or let me rephrase that, toddlers have a VERY HARD time with change.  The move to Savannah really threw her off, even though we were finally reunited with her dad.  I kept on pushing her though.  In fact, I tried to push her through a move, sleep tests, a new baby, and a surgery.  It wasn't working – she was completely regressing, and I was getting angry.  So, I decided to take a break for a little while – go back to diapers and forget all about it.

Then I tried again in the spring – unfortunately for both of us, my already strong willed child, happened to be full force into a defiant stage at the time.  She would pee on the floor, and I was once again, just getting angry.  I tried every form of incentive and bribery.  I tried every trick or silly movie, which is where we got the term "potty power".  Nothing was working, and then I looked at our lives – they were too crazy – both of us needed a nice long break.

So, after our trip to Idaho, with me feeling rejuvenated, and Lily out of her super defiant stage, we tried again.  The key to it all, was not so much the prizes of a TV show or computer game, but that both of us were emotionally ready for it.  I should have been listening to my child all along, because although she had had a window of opportunity last summer, we closed that window when we threw her life into crazy mode.  Things are so much nicer now, and we are all very happy with the outcome.  It has been a long road, but it is so worth it!!