You probably remember this post. Well, after some serious frustration and no progress we decided to postpone potty training. Since Ella was starting preschool and Metti was leaving for 2 months and couldn't take her potty while she was at school, it seemed like the best idea was to wait until after Christmas. So, the time has now come…we’re potty training once again.
I decided that with a new year came potty training, so we started the process on Sunday, January 2nd. Well, the first day she went in her underwear 4 times and not once in the potty. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated. I just kept reminding myself that this was the first day.
I had to find some kind of incentives for her. Candy just wasn’t cutting it (mainly because I pretty much let her have candy whenever she wants, so it’s not a treat). And she didn’t really care about the stickers or putting them on a chart. Then our neighbor gave us a Christmas present for Ella. Ella was so excited for her present, so I told her that she could open it if she went potty on her big girl potty. That was all it took! She sat down and took care of business.
That triggered something in my head…Ella LOVES surprises (just like her mom), so I needed to get a whole bunch of surprises. I headed to Target and bought all sorts of crap stuff from the $1 section. Ella and I even went for a stroll in the bedding section and she saw some Princess bedding and some Tinkerbell bedding that she wanted. I told her that if she started using the big girl potty all the time, I would get her one of the sets.
The toys/surprises totally worked! She quickly learned that whenever she went potty on the big girl potty, then she would a treat. She didn’t care if it was a book, candy, stickers, whatever. She just liked that she got a surprise. Tuesday afternoon (January 4th after school) she didn’t have any accidents, and Wednesday she was in her big girl panties all day with only one accident (and I take the blame…I should have had her go potty after boo boos but I didn’t).
Thursday was the first day she used the potty at school. Boppie has been going in the afternoons to help Ella during recess, then she stays with her for the rest of the day (just 2 hours). So when Metti arrived she took Ella to the bathroom. Ella took care of business and came home with a dry diaper! She wore her diaper all day without going in it! She did have an accident that afternoon, but again, I take the blame (there is also some ‘parent training’ involved where the parents have to be trained to remind their kids to go to the bathroom).
Knock on wood…that was Ella’s last accident. She went all last week without one accident. She was dry the entire time at preschool all 3 days, and she was dry all day Wednesday and Friday. In fact, we took a family trip up to Philly and Ella rode 2 hours in her big girl panties, then she actually went potty in McDonalds when we stopped, then she made it the rest of the way to Joe’s sisters house. She went all weekend (including a trip to a museum and a meal out at a restaurant) without any accidents, and she made it the drive home without any accidents (one stop at Panera where she went potty).
As a special present for going “wee wee” in the big girl potty all the time, Ella got new Tinker Bell sheets for her bed. She saw them at the store and wanted them so badly! I told her that if she started using the big girl potty all the time then I would buy them for her. Boy was she excited to finally get them! The whole way home from Target she talked about how important it is not to go wee wee in your big girl panties and if you go in the big girl potty then you get special Tinker Bell sheets.
The biggest shocker was that Monday morning when she woke up her diaper was dry! She hadn’t gone potty all night! In my humble (and totally and completely biased) opinion, that is awesome! I don’t want to say that she is totally and completely potty trained, because the second I say that she’ll stop going in the potty, but I will say that she’s definitely got the hang of it.
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