Potty Training Weekend

It is great watching kids grow up. But one thing that has to happen when they get older is they need to learn how to go pee pee and poo poo (Thank Elmo for those) on the potty and not in their diaper. I talked previously how we finally got Sevea to sit on the potty chair by reading books. Since then she has been making progress. She had only gone pee pee on the potty maybe 3 times before this past weekend. So we weren't really sure how the potty training would go. But we really believed that this was the right time. She seemed ready. (Well and let's be honest, parents have to be ready as well :) And boy were we right. She did amazing this weekend!!! Troy and I were some incredibly proud parents and couldn't believe how well she did and continues to do. Our plan of attack was an approach that I was emailed from Baby Center. It involved having her sit on the potty every 15 minutes. We had to leave her butt naked the entire weekend as well....and I mean just her bottom half. We started the day setting the timer and having her sit down. This did not work! She just didn't want to sit so often and all we did was reset the timer. So we took a slightly different approach and hoped for the best. Instead of using the timer we just paid attention to the time and how long it had been since she last went and tried to do what we could to get her to sit. It worked and continues to work so far. She had one accident on Saturday. She went pee pee on the floor in the morning so the day didn't start out great but we hoped for the best. From there on it has gone really well. The whole poo poo thing was interesting. I knew this could be the hardest part to train as some kids are afraid or scared or just aren't sure about it all. Well she didn't go poo poo at all on Saturday so we knew Sunday it needed to happen. You could tell she needed to go since her butt crack was lined with poo in the afternoon (you probably never thought I would say such a thing..haha!) So again we just kept asking and asking for her to sit and try. When we weren't looking she sat herself on the potty and went poo poo. It was pretty exciting since she did it all on her own. We couldn't believe it! Then an hour or so later she was squatting down by a chair and pooped on the floor. She felt so bad and sad. She seemed a little scared. It was a great opportunity to teach her again where the poo poo went. And thankfully it was on hardwood and no different than picking up after a dog (see dogs do prepare you for kids..hehe!)

Things have continued to go well this week as well. She has kept her diaper dry at nap time since. We've made two outings (one to the store and once she went to the gym daycare) and she stayed dry those times as well. We haven't ventured out without a diaper yet but we are thinking she could be ready soon. We told her in order to go see friends (gym daycare) she needed to go potty since we can't go in our diaper. She sat and went. Real progress we think to be able to get her to go a little more on command (although we knew she should need to go). Overall we are very excited about how well the potty training has gone. She has done so well and we are very proud of her. It will just take some time to get her to tell us she needs to go. We have to adjust to wearing pants and underwear without going in them. (She is excited for her Dora underwear but the program said it can feel the same as a diaper at times and promotes some kids to go in them....so since I am home with her we'll try a little longer without) We also have to get the potty chair in the bathroom and not the living room :)

A bribe of Cheetos to sit on the potty :)