Potty Training

Of all the "mommy-ing" things there are to do, potty training has been one of the most intimidating for me.  I just haven't really known how to go about it.  There are so many methods and thoughts out there, and none of them seemed to fit my little girl.  She is so busy learning about her world and solving the world's problems ;) that she is very much NOT in touch with her body's signs and feelings.  The past couple of times when I have tried a few things we had nothing but accidents.  I just kind of hoped that maybe if I waited long enough, potty-training would "happen" on its own and that one day she would wake up and tell me she needed to go! 

Over the past year I have been watching for signs for her to be ready, and she has developed a few in the past couple months, such as being able to tell me when her diaper is wet after she has gone.  Since she is coming up on her third birthday in a few weeks, I decided it was "go-time", and we would take 3 days and completely dedicate it to potty training.  If it worked, great.  If not, we would try again later.

Last Monday was the big "first day".  When she woke up, I told her the plan and she was excited.  We would go to the store and she would get to pick out all sorts of fun drinks (to get the potty flowing!) and treats for when she went in the toilet (she picked fun marshmallows).  We also picked up the DVD Elmo's Potty Time, and she was VERY excited to watch it!

We spent the morning watching the DVD twice while she sat on the little potty and drank fun drinks. 

Both kids loved it, and Colton now says "Emo" when he sees Elmo!

Then we played "Go Fish" while she sat on her potty and drank some more :)

Colton had fun running around the living room and chasing balls and playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge....

For quiet time, I put the potty in her room with her so she could go if she needed to, and she did!  (The first day she was scared to get off the potty because she didn't want to have an accident so she played the whole time while sitting on it, poor thing!)

We had our first outing to Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric's house for dinner while Paul played tennis with friend from college.  Summer had an accident free evening AND went in a new toilet for the first time!

Colton loved Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric's landscaping rocks!

Picking rasberries with Uncle Eric

Colton sitting at the big table

"Uncle Eric, I went potty in the toilet!!!!!"

YAY SUMMER!

I was very proud of Summer for her persistence despite accidents, her good attitude about trying something new, and her effort.  It has now been a week since we started, and she is doing great.  As long as I remind her to go at regular intervals we can "almost" have no accidents in a day.  We spent the past 5 days at Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl's trailer, and she did AWESOME with only 1 or 2 accidents in a day--pretty good for being at a brand new place!  Pictures of that to come after I "steal" some from Grandpa T. :)