Pants

The Toddler has an endearing new habit. She has taken to removing her nappy in bed, and then weeing. Or worse. Which, as you can imagine, is less than fun for us. We've tried many things to prevent this - putting pants on over her nappy (not an obstacle to her at all), removing a toy from her bed every time she took it off (looked like it might work, until she handed over two toys at once and said "Away"), and bribing her with the promise of a new toy (only done this tonight, I'll have to update you on its effectiveness. But could prove an expensive way of doing things). So far, nothing's worked. As a result, Husband and I keep running upstairs to check on her, which keeps her hyped up, so we usually have a still-awake toddler come 9pm. It's at times like this that I wish I'd had the foresight to see video monitors as more than just another weapon in the paranoid parent's arsenal, but hey ho. I'm not about to buy one now, so we'll just have to spend our evenings listening out for the telltale sound of Velcro (unfortunately, the sound of her dragging her toenails along her bedguard sounds exactly like nappy tabs being ripped open, so the stairs get much unnecessary pounding).

I'm guessing that this behaviour is just another sign that she's nearly ready for potty training. I was hoping I could put this off for a bit longer because a) I'm lazy and can't be arsed, and b) I have no idea how to go about it. I've been kinda hoping that I can just leave her to it, and one day she'll just turn around and say "You know what, Mother? You don't really have to put these nappies on me anymore, I'm quite capable of going to the toilet on my own". Not sure it really works like that though.

I'm hoping it won't be too difficult. She is quite often dry for a fair few hours, and will say "Mammy wee wee toilet" or "poo poo" (although this usually means wee or fart) when she needs to go. Sometimes she will even do a wee once she's put on the toilet, congratulating herself with a "Yay!", thanks to all the loving encouragement we've been giving her. For the last couple of days though she's been refusing to go once there. Unless we're in a restaurant, or similar. For some reason, restaurant toilets are wildly exciting places and we must go there many times for The Toddler to squeeze out the teeniest bit of wee. I'm offended on behalf of my own three perfectly adequate and more-or-less clean toilets, and the little training seat we bought her. Which, by the way Mothercare, is not worth £6.99 just because you have stuck one Peppa Pig sticker on it. Especially when the sticker is on the bit that goes under the toilet seat.