"Ariana, were's the poopie?"

You know your in for it when you hear yourself say something like that.

As many of you know, we are in the seemingly endless process of potty training. After many false starts and stops, at the suggestion of a friend, she is now wearing "big girl" underpants (at times covered by a pullup) and being taken to the potty regularly. She understands where she is supposed to go ("I go pee pee and poo poo in the potty!") but has not gotten the concept of actually doing it. Ok, so once in awhile she will go as if she is an old pro, but most of the time, I spend an amazing amount of time reminding her "we go poo poo/pee pee in the potty" as I sit patiently as I watch her change her pants and throw the wet/dirty ones away.

A little while ago, she came into my room and holding up a hand clearly covered in you know what, said "momma, help me clean". Trying to stay calm without either screaming or breaking out in hysterical laughter, I asked "is that your poopie?" (we have a dog). Ariana said very seriously "yes".

We went into the bathroom and as she is washing her hands, I inspect her underpants.
They were clean.
I clean up her tush and then ask her where the rest of it is.
"In the potty" she says.

My spirits rose thinking perhaps she went to the toilet in the other bathroom, I ran in, only to be sadly but not unexpectedly disappointed.

"Honey, where is the poopie?"
"in the potty"
"yes honey, we are supposed to go poopie in the potty. Can you tell mama where the rest of the poopie is?"
"in the potty". (is it too early for a cocktail??)

I then spend the next few minutes running around looking and smelling to no avail.

The mystery remains, hopefully never to be found.