like water for chocolate

afton was supposed to be a breeze to potty train. she showed great interest, loves her panties, hates to be wet or dirty, and tells me immediately when to change her diaper. plus, she has a bladder of steel (like big sister summer).

it should have been a total breeze.

but alas...

it seems along with that iron bladder, afton also has an iron will, and somewhere along the line, she decided that she would never, not ever, go potty in the potty (a mindset perhaps related to her deep-rooted distrust of " the machine").

she has been in panties full time (minus nap and bed) for several weeks now, and in the course of those several weeks, she has miraculously managed to never, not ever, go potty in the potty.

she sits on her little throne every fifteen minutes all day long, comes off dry as a bone, and using her bladder ninja powers, holds it (for hours) until she gets into her pull-ups for nap time or diapers for bed (and, of course, she sometimes has accidents. maybe she's even had one all over herself and the floor in the middle of the grocery store -- *totally* my bad.)

now, my overall potty philosophy is pretty laid back; it's an aspect of parenting that i'm unusually calm about, and i follow a general "comme ci, comme ca, whatevs" kind of vibe. but, for some reason, i desperately needed afton to go potty. once. ONE TIME. sometimes a mother needs a sign, even a small sign, that she is not just a complete nut ruling the land of the screaming crazies. that somewhere, somehow, in the middle of it all, progress is being made.

and today was the day.  i decided that to-day, come hell or high water, afton was going to pee in that potty. we would finally see who's iron will was stronger.

and it turns out (was there any doubt?), it's mine.

after four hours and over twenty ounces of milk, i knew she had to go.  i sat her down on the potty, grabbed a pile of books to read to her, and said that if she went pee in the potty, she could have her very own full size candy bar (mommy of the year award, right?) blinded by my need to make some kind of headway at this point, i would have done just about anything to hear that tinkle.

long story short, afton got her a candy bar.

mission accomplished.