Real, Actual Potty Training

Hey there, friends.  If you follow me at all on Facebook, you'll know we started potty training on Saturday.  I had been planning to wait until Monday, but Maeve had a rough diaper change on Saturday morning, with lots of owie and crying, and so I took her up on my lap and said, That was your last diaper change.  Let's do big girl undies.  And she tearfully agreed.

Honestly, if I'd known she was going to pick it up this fast, I would have tried a lot sooner.  The thing that made me not want to try it was she was so adamantly opposed to ever using the potty under any circumstances.  We'd say to her, someday you're going to use the potty like all your friends!  And she'd stomp her feet, throw things, and tell us basically that hell was going to freeze over first.  So I hesitated.  The water did not seem warm enough to jump on in, if you will.

But this week, my husband took the whole week off, and the weather is warm, so I thought, this is our best chance to get it done with lots of help.  The first day there were a lot of accidents, as she was really trying to get the hang of knowing the feeling of needing to go.  Accidents everywhere, but a few successes, enough to make her want to keep trying.

The second day, she did lots better, but lots of near-misses.  She was still working on recognizing the feeling, but she made it to the potty in time lots more.  And then yesterday, day 3, it seemed like everything clicked.  She only had one accident, she made it to the potty every other time, and it didn't seem to be hard for her at all. 

We even went to my in-laws' house last night, a 35 minute drive, and she used the potty there just fine, and even stayed dry on the way there.  So let this be a lesson to you, just because your kid says they aren't ready for something, that's no indication as to their actual readiness.

I may have drawn too many squares...