checkmate.

JUST when you think you've got them, they pull out their super secret, stealthy move. Elisabeth had been getting up progressively earlier. When this hit 6am, we knew it had to stop. We got out our trusty Weissbluth (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), which suggested two things: earlier bed time and put a clock in her room and tell her she can't come out until a specified time. Brilliant. So, 7pm we put her in bed with an alarm clock that we showed her how to read. We then engrained the numbers 7-0-0 into her head and after a few days it worked like a charm. She gave up trying to wake up so early because she realized she was stuck in her room. There was some amount of bliss in our house (but let's face it, we still had to wake up with Charlotte). This worked for a month. Then the scheming little beast hatched her most recent plan that has me stymied. At 6:30 the past two mornings we've woken up to a whisper, combined with the dragging of a stool to the light in our bathroom, "I just have to pee. Don't worry, I just have to go potty." What do you do here??

Options:
1. get up and help her go to the potty.
2. holler at her and make her go back to bed.

Doug handled yesterday's bathroom wakeup, and I handled this mornings. Bonus points to anyone who can guess before reading the next sentence how the respective mornings were handled. Yesterday morning, Doug got up with her and helped her go potty. He's so nice and patient.

This morning, Doug was already up with Charlotte when Elisabeth had the misfortune of waking me up to go to the bathroom. Sensing a pattern and realizing she was using this as a way to manipulate me into letting her get up before 7-0-0, I promptly sent her to find her already awake Daddy. Off she went. A few minutes later, I heard the disharmonious clanging of a piano being played by a three year old. Realizing that I sent her downstairs and that Doug was not down there, I got up and came downstairs and hollered at her and sent her back to her room in tears.

What do you do in this situation? I obviously don't like the idea that I'm telling her she can't go to the bathroom, especially while we are in a precariously potty trained position, but at the same time I don't like her using the potty as a way of getting out of bedtime. You can see it in her eyes, she's laughing inside and saying "GOTCHA!"