T.M.I. im"PLY"ed (Pun intended)

I just want to say for the record: I had a plan. I had a well timed and thought out plan but apparently Aly couldn't wait another 2 1/2 weeks. She just had to exert her agency at the most inconvenient time you could conceive to try and potty train.

In mother's circles everywhere when the dreaded and feared topic comes up an oft repeated phrase is, "YOU have to be ready," implying the mother. Having done this song and dance twice before I know these words to be ones steeped in wisdom. That would be why I haven't really tried to P.T. Aly. Sure she may be 'ready' but she is also smart as a whip and strong willed- like most 2 year olds- and I had a sneaking suspicion she may try to teach me a few new lessons. So Nathan and I devised a plan. He would be home for a stretch after Christmas, we would be through traveling for a bit and as a team we would put Operation P.T. Aly into effect.
So this last week with Nathan out of town we were watching one of Aly's friends from church who is newly P.T. When this little girl went potty Aly wanted to go too and I thought nothing of it since she will go before bath and bed, etc. What I wasn't expecting was the absolute meltdown she was threatening when I tried to put her diaper back on. Aly was NOT having it. I kind of sat there stupidly on the floor of the bathroom trying to mentally digest what was going down. At 6pm on a Thurs. night with Nathan a world away and we are leaving for my Mom's newly re-carpeted house in a week- Aly wanted to start wearing panties. Insert mental swear word here. Totally begrudgingly I got the girl a pair of panties and she had success for a couple of hours before bed- which was just long enough to remind me of how exhausting the vigilance of potty training can be. Friday morning I totally woke up with a P.T. hangover. Yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing either but apparently I had worried and fretted and dreamt about it all night. I laid there in bed trying to ignore the headache I could feel coming on, cursing my daughter for her desire to be self-sufficient and independent and trying to focus my positive thoughts on getting her to wear a diaper that morning when I went in to get her. What? That was my plan okay? Pretend the whole thing never happened. It was a solid plan I felt. Then we could do a re-do after Christmas on my terms. But it didn't go down how I'd visualized (proving the "Secret" is a joke) because Aly took one look at me casually holding a diaper and said, "I want pan-ees. I not wear diaper." Mental swear word again. There's been a lot of that going on the last few days.
Anyway, she has had some success but she is still having lot's of 'spills' as she calls them and (and she is still holding #2) it made our already difficult weekend considerably worse. I.e. our Ward Christmas party was largely spent running back and forth to the RR. Maybe I'm just not remembering accurately how the other two did but I know Kohen only really had one day with accidents and that was it. That and the time he peed in my mouth...At least Aly hasn't done that, though there's always tomorrow. It takes 'em a while to get the hang of it right? I really just can't remember. Just picture yourself trying to do all the seasonal and Christmas-y stuff this time of year is stuffed with, while trying to P.T.- and please pity me...