spoke too soon?

we've been backsliding here in the Golden house, at least when it comes to going on the potty. no it isn't the end of the world, but it is frustrating at the very least.

nate went almost two solid weeks without any accidents. (he was like 2 days shy of the two week mark.) then all of a sudden he was having accidents left and right. i guess the hardest part for me is that it almost seems intentional or deliberate.

me: nate, do you have to go potty?

nate: no.

me: are you sure?

nate: i'm not sure. (by which nate, in his own brand of logic, means "i'm sure i don't have to." yes, i know it is backwards, and we keep discussing the difference between "i'm sure i don't have to" and "i'm not sure.")

5 minutes later an accident. two accidents in two hours under the same conditions. and really there was no reason he couldn't have held them both since he went potty when we arrived. hmph. true, we were at someone else's house to play, so i wasn't shocked. but he went potty when we got there, i asked him directly and he said no, plus he holds it for hours without a problem normally. he plays at school for 2.5 hours and has no problem either going to the potty or holding it the whole time. so i don't know how much i buy the "playing" excuse.

he's also had two poop accidents recently. one in a pull up while he was playing in his room. the other when he was home with only papa in his underpants. now, i was shocked when he started going poop on the potty so easily, so i'm not overly shocked to be having a few problems now. but then again i am a little bit baffled by it. he seemed to "get it" so quickly. and now this.

and this one seems the most deliberate. last night i caught him (not the first time) squatting to "hide" on the other side of the coffee table. "are you hiding to poop?" NO. "then stop squatting there." NO! "haul butt to the bathroom, you are trying to poop and you need to do it on the potty." and after a bit of time, he did go. i'm not an idiot, i knew what he was doing. why did he deny it? we talked about the fact that he knew he was trying to poop and denied it when asked.

i guess it is the flat out denial that gets my goat. i **know** what he's doing when he's squatting and squirming and can't sit still. but instead of stopping to really decide if he has to go, he denies what he's doing, argues all the way to the bathroom, and then has an accident. (one time he had an accident standing at the potty trying to pull his pants down after dragging his feet and arguing all the way to the bathroom.) so we are trying to be patient and working on not giving mama and papa "automatic answers" but actually considering if he really has to go, and not denying what is happening.

thing is, i can't figure out why. nothing much new is going on around here. baby willow is still months away and we don't do a great deal of talking about her arrival or even her in general. is it just a normal part of the process? am i looking for too much? sometimes he does great, other times it is like he wants to still be in diapers (which he absolutely denies).

i guess, ultimately, it is a process. and a learning process at that. accidents or no, we love him just the same.