Sit On It (Or Don't)

Okay, I promise this is it for the potty updates for a while.  I appreciate all the supportive comments, even as I know that our misbegotten attempts to get the girl out of diapers are not only failing but hardening her pro-diaper stance.  I realized this weekend that a lot of my fervor for this effort stems from my lack of control over fertility issues.  My control-freak brain tells me I must control something, so I took this on.  Bad idea.  In any case, this is the last of it for a while, as I will be sitting back, licking my wounds and waiting for the girl to dictate the next move.  

On the third morning of project bribery, Ada initiates so many "I'll sit on the potty then get a treat" moments that by 9 am Chris and I tell her that she can only get a candy for sitting on the potty with no pants.  This turns out not to be a problem, because when we tell her she has been running around without pants for 20 minutes and already sat on the potty at least twice during that period.  

Ada eats so many chocolates over the next couple of hours that I start desperately trying to get her to leave the house to burn off some of the sugar before lunch.  Ada is crazy for the m&ms, and bouncing off the walls with sugar-fueled, candy coated joy.  She is very particular, however, and only eats the blue ones.  

What it looks like when you eat a ton of blue m&ms, 

not including the blue streaks on her hands and legs

I ask her what she'll do when she's eaten all the blue ones.  What color will you pick then?Considering the candy-filled glass container, Ada points to a red one.  Great, good to plan ahead.  

The sugar-fest continues until nap time.  After nap I notice a trend - Ada is adamant that she wants her diaper back on after (repeatedly) taking it off to sit on the potty.  I am not initially concerned, and figure we will give her a couple more days of "treat for sitting" before telling her the treat comes only when she sits on the potty for the time it takes to read a book.  (Olivia, not War and Peace)

By Wednesday I notice a change.  Ada initiates many fewer sit-for-treat encounters, and declares a desire for a diaper in a way she was not doing previously.  This takes a little while to become clear, as I am away at work most of the day.  By Friday it is crystal, however.  She has stopped asking to sit, and even when we ask if she wants to she says "no" more than not.  

The bribery only works with a willing bribe-ee, which we apparently no longer have.  Having failed to force her to use the potty or to bribe her into wanting to use it, we are left without much leverage.  At this point I am resigned to waiting her out, or at least waiting for a better plan.  What else can I do?  As far as I can tell, pretty much nothing, so I sit and wait, patting myself on the back for not eating her stash of m&ms and wishing I'd changed the blog's tag line when I had the chance. 

Life in a poopy fog, indeed.