I'm Back and I'm Potty Training!

I'm not even going to try to play catch up tonight, since I am in the midst of potty training Harper.

DAY ONE
We began yesterday morning. We've been talking about this for a while now, so she was pretty excited. When I put the diaper on her Thursday night, I told her it was her last one ever, and she was stoked!

Friday morning it was almost completely dry, so I sat her on the potty first thing. She was totally willing and even sat there for over half an hour eating jello and then some grapes. Eventually she got up and started playing. She told me she didn't have to go. Two hours after she woke up, she stopped playing, gave me a look, said she had to go, ran to the potty, and peed. Seriously?? I was beyond shocked!! So we got all excited, she got to push the "Great Job" button on my phone that cheers for her, she got to pick a cookie from the Trader Joe's assortment I picked up for the occasion, and she put a sticker on her chart. We did this 6 times with NO accidents. I'm not kidding. She told me every time, ran to the potty, and went. Not even a dribble on the way to the potty.

Then shortly before nap time she had to poop...

I hear some kids aren't afraid of poop and others are. She is. Never has been before, but doesn't like the idea of pooping on the potty. Apparently.

We had to talk through it a bit, but finally she pooped, just a tiny bit, in the potty. So we cheered and jumped all around and hit the button and ate a cookie and got a sticker and picked a coloring book out of the poo poo prize bag. I was determined to make her super proud of herself to get over the fear.

It didn't work. I left the house to go pick up lunch and my mom stayed with her when she had her first accident. She wanted mommy and peed right next to the potty. Then she went down for a nap (still no diaper). 2 1/2 hours later she woke up in a dry bed! I was shocked again!

But she woke up tired and grumpy and needing to poop pretty bad. So we had another pee accident and she started to hold the poop. REFUSED to even try to poop. Every time she felt the urge she would tell me she needed to go but didn't want to and she would just cry!

She ended up peeing a few more times in the potty, with one more accident right before bed when she decided to put on some big girl panties. (She had been naked from the waste down before this point) I think they felt too much like the security of a diaper. The second she went she knew she had an accident.

I put her to bed around 8:30 still without a diaper (and still without another poop). I expected to hear her sometime in the middle of the night, but not a sound came from her room. At 5:30 this morning I woke up to a sweet 2 year old's voice in my ear that said simply, "Mommy..."


Well, and that's how Day 2 started, so more on that tomorrow.

I have no idea what the perfect method or combination of techniques are, but here's what we're doing.

• No TV. None. She gets too engrossed and loses focus on anything else.
• Naked from the waste down. It keeps her much more aware of what's going on down there.
• No diapers, day or night. I'm just an 'all in' kind of person I guess.
• A very simple potty chart. Get the frog to the lilypad. Easy.
• Lots of sweet and salty snacks to keep her drinking, except an hour before naptime or bedtime.
• Nana is watching Kinley. Harper needs my constant help an attention right now.
• Lots of activities...finger paints, coloring books, cooking together, dance parties, and more.
• A doll that pees. Harper just gets a kick out of watching that doll peepee in the potty.

There's probably no right or wrong, but whichever way I'm doing it, we're sticking to it. No turning back. (I hope I don't regret writing that!)

Jello, Finger Paints, Popsicles, and Tickle Time...Potty Training isn't all bad!