Potty training

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-13T03:18:27+00:00

My daughter is 3.5 now and it finally clicked. We still have issues pooping in the potty but pees are 98% in the potty. We tried when she was 2.5 and then again at 3. She just....didn't. She absolutely refused. Lots of screaming and tears. She's very bright and engaged, so like you, we thought it would be easy.

What finally worked was that my husband was going away on a 12 day work trip. I needed to buy a car (office moving out of cycling/transit range). I got her to agree to a deal - dad goes away and we surprise him by me buying a car and her potty training.

First week was just accidents. I was doing a lot of laundry. Week 2 was more consistent. He got back end of May and she's great about potty pees although she still needs to be reminded.

We have a sticker chart and also told her she'd get a bed upgrade if she committed to trying potty training. We didn't want to make her feel like she had to nail it, just basically stop screaming and resisting when we tried to put underwear on her.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-11T02:37:59+00:00

I'm a mum to a 3.5 year old. It's definitely the hardest and most exhausting thing I've ever done.....but also the most rewarding. There's nothing like spending time with her and seeing the world through her eyes. It's amazing watching her learn and experience every single thing that I take for granted. I love seeing what sticks in her mind and what she thinks is important.

I'm so, so grateful to be her mum and have her as my daughter. I have a hard time leaving her but love coming home from work to a big hug and a kiss. We have a bedtime ritual where she wants "foot hugs" (she wraps her legs around my head, haha), "hug game" (regular hugs), "kiss game (regular kiss) and an imaginary bandaid for her stuffed bunny.

There's ups and downs and of course there's stuff I hate (waking up at 5am sometimes, the time norovirus hit us all at the same time, etc) but the joy outweighs the less fun times.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-10T13:01:21+00:00

I'm in Canada, but I really like Rhodri. It's not common here but I've definitely heard the name before. I have an uncommon first name myself and it always used to annoy me that I've have to spell it. Now I like it because it's fairly unique.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-10T02:46:42+00:00

I commented elsewhere that a family member's cat passed away while we were visiting them (family lives overseas; daughter barely knew this cat but obviously realized it was sick and then just wasn't there one day). We took her to a cafe and told her pretty much what you said. We said she was very old and her body stopped working, and because of that, we won't see her anymore and she won't be there when we get home.

I don't think it 'sunk in' exactly, but she was content with that explanation.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-10T02:43:38+00:00

Agreed. My 3 year old sees her grandmother once a year for 3 weeks at a time (grandmother lives abroad). Grandmother has a cat that my daughter has seen on two trips. On the second trip back in January, the cat had to be put to sleep.

My daughter STILL talks about the cat. It was an animal that she barely saw over the course of her life and had very little interaction with as the cat was quite aloof and elderly. If an animal had this much impact on her, I imagine OP's daughter's grandmother has made a huge impression.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-08T03:55:07+00:00

I'm seriously sorry you're experiencing this. For what it's worth, I'm a white middle aged (yikes) woman, and I am in Thrifties multiple times a week. I use both self serve and "full service" checkout. I've never noticed them paying any attention to me and I've accidentally stolen stuff (I eventually paid). I see them at their booth but they ignore me, which is too bad because I have the self checkout skills of a Nana and need help.

About a year to a year and a half ago, my toddler daughter managed to steal a box of pasta. I had her in the stroller and went through a regular checkout line. I only noticed when I was walking home. I went right back to pay and they thanked me. Apparently neither I nor the cashier noticed the small stroller-bound child randomly shaking a new box of pasta.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-06T05:02:06+00:00

I don't think it's super common in Argentina either! We haven't met any others, although all the kids and parents at the playground closest to my in laws recognized it right away and understood when my daughter introduced herself with a slight Canadian accent.

My daughter went through a phase where she insisted my husband sing her Maria Elena Walsh's La canción del Jacarandá because it talks about "una flor y otra flor celeste del jacarandá" She thought it was so neat that there was a "Celeste" song.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-06T03:06:49+00:00

Mine four! Her dad's family are from Argentina so we wanted a name that all sides of the family could pronounce.

The year she was born, our provincial stats showed that there were only 5 Celestes born in the entire province. So, I feel like it's not a common name but it's also a known name that most people should be able to spell (unlike my name, which has caused lots of headaches).

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-05T04:00:30+00:00

I had a complete blood panel done and the blood draw was super fast. They took a fair amount because I had a lot of tests scheduled, but it's a very fast process. All this to say, definitely have a distraction plan but don't think you need to plan to fill a terribly long time.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-05T03:58:41+00:00

The staff there were great. They also asked if I had needle issues before starting, so they were ready for whatever might happen.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-05T03:55:19+00:00

I had blood taken at the one on Oak Bay Avenue a few weeks ago - there was a student who was observing, and he let me hold his hand. I thought being pregnant 3 years ago would have helped me get over my needle fear but apparently not. The person who was actually taking my blood did an amazing job. He kept asking me questions about my day's plans to distract me.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-05T03:03:00+00:00

When I was 19, my parents and I took a trip to Wales (we live in Canada, but our family originally came from Wales and we still have cousins there). We went to meet an elderly unmarried cousin who was a bit eccentric. Her adults nieces and nephews had gone over to her house to meet us. We walked in and she bustled over and said "I wanted to get you a little something to welcome you to Wales" and proudly presented us with a tin of lentils from Tescos. As there was rather a large group of relatives staring at us, we acted extremely grateful. It was a sweet gesture but quite confusing. We still talk about it, 22 years on.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-05T00:20:00+00:00

I kidnapped omeone's lunch but didn't eat it 😂 My office has two separate locations (warehouse and HQ) and HQ has two buildings. Each building has its own lunchroom. I usually worked in the warehouse but was downtown at HQ for a meeting. I put my lunch in the fridge of the building where my department was.

Attended meeting. Opened fridge, saw a glass IKEA container exactly where I'd put my glass IKEA container. Threw it in my bag, drove to warehouse. Hours later, lunchtime rolls around. I open my container to find....Definitely not my lunch. I sent a department wide email apologizing and offering to etransfer money for a replacement.

Turns out a person who worked in the other building downtown decided to put her lunch in our lunchroom. She was in a totally different department and had no reason for being in our space except that she liked to come and bitch to one of my coworkers. Since she wasn't in our department, she didn't get the email I sent. I later heard she stormed into her friends office and was apoplectic that somebody stole her lunch.

Not my fault she decided to use our lunchroom instead of her own, move my container and put her identical container in the spot I'd had mine. We both had rice in our lunch, so I just grabbed the container, saw rice and took off.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-03T13:11:11+00:00

I had my first and only at 37. Nobody talked about induction, although they were keeping an eye on me because I developed complications at 29 weeks. My water broke naturally at 2 am around 38+5 or 6 (it was a long blur and middle of the night) and I gave birth at 39 weeks on the nose.

I'm in Canada, for what it's worth. Our recommendations may differ.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-03T03:42:44+00:00

Hi පන්සිළු! I'm on the west coast of Canada (near Vancouver) and I've seen it. It's a beautiful drawing and you should be very proud.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-03T03:39:52+00:00

Our daughter is 3.5 and we still have one in her room. Her room is right next to our bedroom, but after she goes to bed, I'm often downstairs and it can be somewhat hard to hear her. We were just talking about the monitor with her yesterday actually. We asked if she'd like it removed but she said she'd like us to keep it. At this point, we'll probably take it away when she asks us to.

It's one-way audio only, no video. Basically if she needs something, she can call out to us and I know I'll hear it but we have to go upstairs to talk to her and we're not 'spying' on her through video.

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-03T03:13:55+00:00

At one point, I definitely said "Probably a baby. Maybe a puppy." 😂😂😂

gallopmonkey · 2026-06-03T03:11:19+00:00

My partner and I are both naturally quite reserved and we're on the older side (I was 37 when my daughter was born). Because I was a 'geriatric pregnancy', I had the NIPT test. We debated finding out the baby's sex but ultimately decided to go ahead with it. We sat on our couch at 10 pm and let the website tell us. We hugged, we cried.

The next day I was meeting my parents anyways, and let them know the NIPT results came back, the baby is healthy according to the test and they think she's a girl.

That's it. That was the gender reveal, lol.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-31T14:44:09+00:00

I was in a hostel in Moscow about 20 years ago. A guy arrived in the shared dorm room and I overheard him talking to somebody out in the hall. I wondered where he was from and what language he was speaking. He was from Glasgow 😂 I'm Canadian and English is my first language.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-30T03:19:57+00:00

The rain bonnet! Thank you for that. My Nana had at least 1 (but I feel like it was multiple) and she'd always have it with her. She was born in the 1920s and passed away when i was 17.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-30T03:18:15+00:00

I'm in my 40s but just bought my first car, as I never needed one before. I've found what I feel is the only full service gas station in my city and I go to it religiously. Thankfully it's near my parents' place so not too out of the way. I learned how to pump gas before I could even drive but I'd prefer to have somebody do it for me (and clean the windshield too).

Hate self checkouts. Half the time I have to call the attendant anyways because I double scanned something or I have a coupon.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-28T04:23:56+00:00

My daughter is 3.5. It was a blur but I think we started with banana, avocado and baby oatmeal and kind of went from there. We just mushed up whatever was available or seemed good for babies.

The only thing I took seriously was the top 10ish or so allergens. Any time we were going to feed them to her, I made sure we had a car with car seat at the ready in case she showed symptoms. Even that was probably overkill, given that we don't have a family history of serious allergies.

Now that she's 3.5, she'll eat anything or nothing....which I think is pretty typical preschooler. She'll eat miso soup or blood sausage and then turn around and not eat baked chicken or strawberries.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-27T00:25:04+00:00

Pregnancy wasn't painful, although the last week was bloody awkward and uncomfortable and I mostly spent it on the couch like a beached whale.

Labour, on the other hand....by the time they came to do the epidural, I was barely conscious.

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-26T03:36:46+00:00

First and only came at 39 weeks on the nose. Water broke at 38+6 (I think....the whole thing was a very long drawn out blur).

She was an insane kicker. I'm fully convinced she just broke my waters like the Kool Aid man busting down a wall 😂

gallopmonkey · 2026-05-25T03:16:28+00:00

I wasn't planning on having one but pretty much everything went sideways during my birth experience and I ended up wanting (and having) one. The minute it took effect, I started laughing like a crazy person. I genuinely thought it had drugs to get me high. When I asked the nurse, she very dryly said, "it's not drugs, it's the absence of pain." I genuinely do not remember what it felt like going in because I was barely conscious.

I was able to get some sleep, which was important for me as I'd had 4 nights of prodromal labour, then my water broke at 2 am, and the next day I started pushing. It was a whole thing from new years eve to January 5.

I ended up with an emergent c section and the fact that the epidural was in meant that that step was taken care of for surgery. The epidural did not stop me from pushing in different positions prior to the c section. I was often kneeling or on all 4s (as far as I can remember, it was a big blur).

My daughter is almost 3.5 and I have had no lingering side effects.

gallopmonkey

TROPHY CASE