It's a ride with no one else in line

This is the ninth day we've been potty training. And it's been hard-core this time.

Madeline and I didn't leave the house for the first five days and she's been sans diapers (during the day) since last Monday. Let's just say my hard-wood floors saw more disinfectant last week than they've seen in the three years since we moved in.

It's the reason why I haven't been blogging, e-mailing or texting because she only has accidents when I let her out of my sight for .2 seconds.

Just because we've been hitting it hard, don't think Madeline is not having fun.

Because, clearly, she's loving it.

From her perspective, life has been Disney Princess under.wear, stickers, jelly beans, M&Ms, gummy bears, phone calls to family members, crafts and the revered Berenstain Bear DVD.

I've heard from moms that potty training is not a favorite season of life. I had heard it was difficult but since I didn't understand why it was hard, I also didn't understand just how hard it would be.

I think Coldplay sums up my potty training experience to date: "Nobody said it was easy/no one ever said it would be this hard."

To Madeline's credit, she has done an amazing job with it. Much better than I would have expected. But still, there were times when I was literally banging my head against the doorjamb in frustration. Which explains why there's now a sheet of paper outside our bathroom with encouraging Scripture scrawled all over it.

And that's why there are similar Post-Its and scraps of paper all over the house. I desperately needed some encouragement during those first few days.

I wish someone had said to me, "Potty training is a roller-coaster. You will be exhausted, exhilarated, drained, depressed and thrilled during the first few days. Sometimes you may experience all of these emotions in a 15-minute span. There will be moments when you think you've licked this milestone and other times when you're ready to throw in the towel."

Or maybe that was just my experience and no one can relate because I'm odd. Last week, sometimes my heart would be pounding so hard because I was so thrilled by her progress and her excitement when she realized she was becoming a Big Girl. And then a half-hour later, I was ready to quit as I held her in the rocking chair and we both cried.

I will say that whoever said, "They have to be ready and you have to be ready" is right on the money. For whatever reason, Madeline woke up a week ago ready to do this and I was also ready to dedicate our days to it. Because it requires me to say "You wanna sit on the potty" every five minutes and do nothing else which is much more exhausting than it sounds.

Yesterday was the first day we ventured outside with the goal to keep one of her favorites, Little Mermaid, dry. We went to the Children's Museum. I was nervous the entire time. Even though the museum has been around 80 years and has thousands of little kids running through it every day, my head was thinking Madeline would probably be the first kid to have an accident on their carpet.

She. Did. Awesome.

Of course, it helps that they have tiny kid potties about six inches off the ground that Madeline thinks is the coolest thing she's ever seen. Also, she knows she gets to flush the toilet with her foot in those kinds of bathrooms. And does life get better than flushing toilets with your feet?

Apparently not to a certain 2 year old who has totally stolen her mama's heart.

Based on what I've heard, I'm waiting for her to suddenly not want to do this and go back to diapers. And I'll be OK with that because I know the time will come when she'll want to do this again.

But if she keeps this up, I'm right there with her. With an outfit change and plastic Target bag in my purse and Phillipians 2:14-16 running through my head.