(Refused to be) Sleeping Beauty

Don't be charmed by the wistful looking little girl in a tutu.  It is a trap.

She was supposed to be asleep.  So, why is there urine on the floor?

We got Cate a pink frog "potty" for her second birthday.  We are not early potty training people.  But, Cate seemed interested.  And, as I have never trained a girl before, I thought maybe it was time.  Well, maybe it was, but I was/am not ready.  She is so little, she will need assistance at every step of the process, and I am just too busy right now to be held prisoner by the whims of a manipulative two year old.  Our plan is to wait until summer:  fewer clothes for her and fewer classes for her homeschooled brother.

But, we still have the potty.  It lives in the garage, or it is supposed to.  Periodically, she charms us into bringing it back into the house.  She likes to play at going potty.  Okay, I am understating it on purpose.  We will, on a Saturday afternoon, put her in her Dora the Explorer underpants, and let her use her potty.  And she does.  There are accidents.  And, there is still the manipulation issue.  So, the potty goes back out to the garage.  Or, it is supposed to.

Today, at nap time, it was in her room.  Today, at nap time, she would not sleep.  I credited this to the change to daylight savings time.  The clock said 1:30, but her little body said "not tired."  I gave her a while to play and move around in there, then I went in to put her back down, for good this time.

When I entered the room, she was pantless, her lavender fleece pants and diaper in a heap on the floor.

"Catie, why are you naked?" I asked.  Who wouldn't?

"Mess, Mommy," she said, and pointed at the potty.

There was no mess in the potty, though it was a little damp.  A good effort, I supposed, for a rookie who had already wet her diaper.

"Mess, Mommy.  Mess."

"Catie, I don't see a mess."

"Here, Mommy."  She pointed to what would turn out to be a damp spot on the carpet.  The long, 1970's disco style, Yorkie-fur shag carpet that made an ill-advised, do-it-yourself cable decorating show, resurgence in 2002, and was put in by a previous owner.

"Catie, why did you pee on the floor?"

"No, Mommy.  Pee potty.  Dump it."

"You peed in the potty, and then dumped it on the floor."

"Uh-huh."

She sounded so proud of herself, and I was left to ask... Was she proud because she had peed in the potty and then finished the job, by emptying the potty?  Or, was she proud because she had punished me for putting her down for a nap she did not want to take?

The question is still pending.