I'm so behind on blogging-a lot of which I owe to Claire's potty training! Its a good thing though-I am so happy to only have 1 in diapers! I decided it was time, with Claire's 3rd birthday approaching mid-month. I knew I would be off for 3 days in a row over Memorial Day Weekend so I devoted my long weekend to staying put in the house (talk about cabin fever!) and doing some hardcore, no turning back, potty training. The first day, I gave Claire as much as I could to drink....juice, water, orange juice, milk....until she refused to drink anymore. The key there was to increase the number of chances that she would have to pee, thus increasing our opportunities at training. She used the toilet 8 times that day AND had 5 accidents-that's a lot of time on the potty, not to mention all of the false alarms. I also made her sit on the potty for 5-10 minutes after each accident so she'd get the idea of where she needed to be when it was time to go. The first day was very hard. The second day, she starting telling us she had to use the potty! Also on the second day, she did #2 in the potty! She only had 1 accident that day and the same pattern followed for about the next 4 days with regards to peeing. We used the Elmo sticker chart and she got to put on a new sticker every single time she used the potty. We also enlisted the help of those little capsules that dissolve and leave a colored sponge behind, as motivation. These particular ones were all in the shapes of dinosaurs and Claire was amazed-she loved them! They were a great special treat. After those first 5 days, she has not had any accidents involving pee. #2 is a different story-we have definitely had our fair share of 2 or 3 a day showers to clean up the poop accidents but, as gross as it is, I'll take it. She's getting better and better each day and the fact that she hasn't had any other accidents, so quickly in the process, has been wonderful. She always tells us when she has to go, which is great. The 3rd day into the training, I don't know if I was feeling brave or stupid, but I had to get out of the house. I brought our little frog potty in the back of my car and we ventured out to Michael's Arts and Crafts. After a successful 30 minute car ride and 30 minute stay in the store, Claire used the frog potty in the back of my car in the parking lot! You do what you gotta do, right? One day on the way home from meeting up with Jeff and picking up the kids so he could go to the driving range, we weren't so lucky. We had forgotten the potty at home and as I am driving home, Claire announces she has to use the bathroom! I pull over to the first place I could, not knowing at this point that we didn't have the potty. The first place I got to was the local fire department. I asked Claire if she could hold it, as we were only 10 minutes from home, or if she needed to squat down and go right now. She said, "Mommy, I need to squat down!". So, that's exactly what we did-she popped her first squat behind some bushes in the parking lot of the fire station! We now have that potty in the car at all times, just in case. When we got home that evening, as soon as we pulled in the driveway, Claire announced she had to go again. I kind of brushed it off since she had just gone 10 minutes ago. However, I said ok and told her I needed to get Griffin out of the car befor we could go inside. As I was getting Griffin out of his carseat, I hear her say, "Look Mommy! I'm squatting!". Sure enough, I turn around and there she is, in our driveway, everything pulled down, squatting and going pee pee! Oh boy! :) Since then, I have started also carrying a seat that you put onto a regular toilet that is more her size. I carry that in my diaper bag so that if we are in a resturant or shopping, we can use their restroom. That has gone really great as well. She is still wearing a pull up at nap time and bed time, but I hear that is usually the case for a few months after you start potty training. We call them her "night night panties" so that she doesn't confuse them with diapers! Keep your fingers crossed that we stay on such a good path!
Claire putting on her very first sticker from using the potty!
Lots of stickers after 2 days!
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