Training Takes Patience

My internet isn’t working today, so I’m going to have to post this tomorrow when, hopefully, I will be online again.  Even if this post doesn’t show up until later, at least I know that I’m doing all I can to keep to my commitment of posting… or at least writing every day.

House breaking Ottis has been hit and misses.  I admit that I really don’t know what I’m doing.  I’m trying to take him out on a consistent schedule, but he seems to just not want to go outside… he prefers the carpet.

I’ve been doing really well the past couple of days of making sure that all the bedroom doors are closed throughout the day so Ottis doesn’t have a place to go, and that was helping, but low and behold as soon as a child forgets and leaves a door open I go in and find a present waiting for me there. 

I don’t really get mad at Ottis for it.  Maybe I should.  But I feel like it really isn’t his fault… frankly if I were a dog I would prefer to find some quiet private place to go when no one was looking too.  But, poor thing… he is destined to live a life of someone always supervising his bathroom habits.

I just wish he would give me some sort of sign that he needs to go.

Oh well… hopefully we will both figure this out sometime soon.

In the mean time I wish I could train him to do this.

My Little Princess is also having a hard time with potty training.  Although she is coming along.  Today she told me she had to go poo!  That’s a big deal.  Lately she has taken to sneaking into her bedroom and slipping on one of her night time pull-ups and doing her business there, and then shyly coming up to me and telling me that she has poo in her diaper.

But today (oh joyous day) she came up to me and told me she had to go BEFORE she snuck on her diaper.  I think it’s because I had her door closed (because of Ottis sneaking in there) and she couldn’t get it open (her door sticks sometimes).  So, I took her to the potty and sat her down.  She told me she wanted some privacy!  I closed the door and told her to tell me when she was finished.

About 3 minutes later she called me, and told me it was taking too long.  I asked if she was done.  She said, “No, but how come it’s not wanting to come out?” 

“Well… sometimes you have to be patient.”

Then, she asked for a book!

She’s going to kill me someday for posting this picture, but it’s hilarious.

I gave her her “Pinkalicious” book, and once again she asked for privacy.

I closed the door… only to grab my camera, and then snapped these shots before she could stop me. 

I guess that potty training requires patience both for the trainer, and the trainee.

I need to remember that.  Just as I want my Heavenly Father to be patient with me as He tries to guide me and shape me into who He wants me to be, even when He is asking me to do things that I think is hard, He does see the bigger picture, and He knows what is best for me in the long run.

If I want Him to be patient with me as He is training me… I need to show patience for my children… and my dog as I try to train them.  It is hard.  But I know that someday it will “click” for them and we will see things and do things in the right light.  Just as I hope to see as He sees someday.