life in the day, or is it day in the life?

these past couple of days have been rather sobering for me, for a couple of reasons -- macro and micro.

my intent to potty train siri in oregon was an almost success. she now uses the potty to pee like an absolute pro. but, pooping? "siri go diaper." i decided to brave it and let her go to her nanny's in her underpants, hoping that she would get the hang of using the potty, and just do her business. the joke was on me since i was the one who spent evenings scrubbing poopy underpants.

after the second day of poop-scrubbing, we showed siri the utter grossness, and begged her to please poop in the potty. or, alternatively, she could poop in her diaper. we figured, we'd take this one step at a time, and if she can poop in her diaper for now, then we can slowly train her to poop in her potty. well, this suggestion seems to have worked, but now i kind of wish for poopy underpants. you see, my child is smart. and, i don't say this like she's the smartest kid i know. i say this because many toddlers are smart in a cunningly mischievous way.

siri is an expert staller at bed and nap times (only at home, of course. she's angelic for anna). she willingly puts away books at bed time, makes up excuses to take several trips to straighten out her toys, picks her nose and insists on getting tissue to "wipe by self," requests water because her "throat hurts. please, mommy. siri throat hurt." and now, we have given her a free pass to poop in her diaper, but in the bathroom.

for the past two nights, she has added "poop in my diaper in bathroom" to her stalling repertoire. and, she manages to poop tiny "installments" each time (at least yesterday). of course, she knows we will rush her to the bathroom when she needs to poop (since she insists on diapers, we want her to associate the act with the correct location). ss. Staller pooped THREE times last night and finally fell asleep at 10:30, when i refused to let her go to the bathroom. she screamed "poop in my diaper in bathroom!" i told her to hold it until morning. silence. then, she looked at me and said, "poop mommy/daddy bed." i called her bluff. She didn't go, and fell asleep instead. tonight, she actually pooped once and "tried" two other times. after her second "try," i told her that maybe she'd have better luck in the morning. she conceded and fell asleep around 9:50.

This experience has been coupled by a rather grave national event: the attempted assassination of Rep. Giffords (D-AZ). I'm not going to speculate that the gunman is a rightwinger influenced by Sarah Palin's crosshairs map. I'm not going to ask gun-supporters to admit that they helped actualize a crazy man's political vengeance. I'm not going to say that nutjobs who support gunownership have blood on their hands (and conscience), including that of a very innocent nine-year-old girl. But, what I will say is, enough already. This bipartisan bullshit has got to end. This nation is festering with hate and discontent toward our government, toward our president, and toward each other. This has to end if we are expected to come together as a nation. As a people.

Political ideological differences aside, don't we all potty train our kids? Don't we all learn the ropes of parenthood? Don't we all contend with cunning two-year-olds? I am sobered by recent events, both in my home and in the nation. Potty training is difficult. Putting aside our differences and meeting in the middle is even more difficult. I have no idea why these two themes melded together for this entry. Maybe because they happened around the same time, or maybe because I think bipartisanship is like pooping in a diaper in the bathroom. We'll never become a better country if we never learn to use the potty.