This is for my Sarah Beth. An account of her daily adventures and discoveries.

Ok, ok, I finally got a bug in me to really try some intensive potty training on Sarah.  Last week I decided that I would try it this past weekend.  It was stressful, awful and putting the pressure on Sarah soooo backfired on me.  Literally!  I'll get to that part later.  So, Sarah wakes up at exactly 6:00 a.m Saturday morning.  I immediately change her pull-up for training panties.  Sarah blows a fuse right off the bat.  "Noooo Mom, I love my diapers.  I love 'em.  I love 'em.  Don't take them away from me. Panties hurt!  Nooooooo!"  So, after waking up Garrett, calming Sarah down and a deep and serious discussion about why panties hurt, I got them on her.  (She said they hurt because she was thinking of a pair of old fashion training pants that I sometimes put on her.  The legs are too small on those and they bother her.  These new and improved panties are all cotton and soft)  Ok, we had on the panties and I started plying her with sippy cups of juice.  Two cups and a pancake breakfast later and still no pee.  So, we wait and wait and wait.  We spent 1/2 an hr in the bathroom and had a few tantrums.  Garrett and I had a quick meeting and decided we would be more flexible about where the potty could be and moved on from there.  Finally, 4 hrs. after she woke up she finally went pee in the potty.  Woohoo!  Celebrate!  I made sure I told her how proud I was of her and we did a peepee dance and she got to pick a prize from the Surprise Bag.  That was the highlight of the day.  We had 5 accidents, one involved poop, for the rest of the day and night.  Started again bright and early the next day.  Again she held it in til she burst but did manage to make it in the potty and that was it.  Accidents all the rest of the day and no poop at all.  So, Garrett and I decided to take it much slower and we would still try with real panties while we were at home and had time but during outings and such she would wear pull-ups.  We had one last incident Monday morning, which only strenghten our resolve to go easy on the training.  Garrett was getting ready for work, Sarah woke up and got her morning juice from Dad and I was still asleep.  I awoke to the sounds of Sarah walking into our bedroom.  "Daddy look at these spots on my dress?  I had lots of bubbles in my butt and I want to change my diaper."  The poor child had held it in so long she had diarrhea.  It had leaked out and ran down her leg and she had left little spots from the family room, tile walkway, up the stairs and into our bedroom.  We did clean up, wash up and went on with our day.  Sarah will go potty like a big girl when she is good and ready and no one will tell her or make her do otherwise.  I now know this and accept it.  Live and learn.