Potty trainer!

Big news: it's been one week of potty training at our house and Mirabella is doing fabulously!



For almost a week before she started, after one of the many times I had talked to her about the need to start going potty on her potty chair, she said, "I'm going to start going in my potty chair. I will do it soon." I asked when she was going to start and she replied, "I'm going to start on...Thursday." I think it was a Friday when she said it the first time, and then almost every day after it came up with the same response about starting on Thursday. Of course I tried to pull the wool over her eyes and tell her it was Thursday that Saturday, the day after she said it the first time, but she didn't buy it. So, I waited patiently, and finally it was Thursday (Thursday, October 13th, at 31 months old). And low and behold, it was indeed the day potty training officially started in full force for Mirabella!

We tried right away in the morning when I practically shouted from the roof tops, "It's Thursday! It's time to start going potty in your potty chair!" She was apprehensive, as if what she had promised had really hit her. She didn't go right after waking up, but after breakfast, I brought her potty chair downstairs and had her try again while we were playing. We sat for a while, I even told her I'd go too and then I saw the big smile as she said excitedly, "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" Yay! I was a tad more excited than she was I'm sure. She earned two candy corns, one for pee and one for...poop! We rewarded her with a small treat (an M & M, a bite of a full sized, fancy candy bar) in this way every time for the first two days, but by Saturday, she kind of let it go. She only thinks of it once in a while now, but if there is something on her radar, she won't hesitate to say so. 

Showing off her candy corns

Taking her time enjoying every last morsel

I kept telling her how proud everyone was going to be of her, how we had to tell this person and that person and they were going to be so happy. When we were tooling around the aisles later that day at Target, she said, "Everyone at Target is so proud I'm going potty in my potty chair." They were the cutest words coming out of her mouth.

A diaper hasn't hit her bottom since that day. She wears training pants while we are home, Pull-ups in public and for nap and bed times. While we are out, she is encouraged not to go potty in the Pull-ups and she has only had wet ones a few times this week. Her trainers are staying dry for the most part at home too; the handful of accidents have all been pee, and seemed to be explained by being overly excited or startled (after playing Hide and Go Seek, for instance) or being overly upset (after sitting in time out, for instance). Three full days since she started, there were no accidents (no wetness in a trainer or Pull-up) from morning to night. 

To our surprise, she was going potty in the public restroom - with her little Dora training ring that fits in the big toilet seat - by Saturday, just two days after starting the endeavor (in a Gustavus college dorm public bathroom while we were there watching a soccer game, no less)! Very impressive to us.

 

Showing off her training pants

We're still at the asking her dozens of times a day if she has to go phase, but things are progressing well. While Mirabella doesn't often initiate going potty herself yet, she is great about going to try when we tell her to. More often than not, it produces results! She has been eager recently to trade in the trainers with plastic lining for just the cotton ones, and we've let her try that two or three times, once unsuccessfully. She can't wait for the big girl undies to come out of the drawer and become a permanent part of her wardrobe. If she keeps up this good work, that will become reality soon.

Hooray for Mirabella!

PS. Here are a few funny excerpts from when she and Jeff were in the bathroom going #2:

• "I went a little one and now I'm going to go a big one. The music will play when I go a big one."
• "Look! It's like a cookie! It's like a frog. It's kind of like a frog or a cookie."
• And then a second one came and she said, "Look! I'm doin' it! It's hangin'. I'm gonna poooosh it out and I'm not gonna touch it. I did it! I did it! I go a big one! I'm gonna go some more." She didn't.

While discussing using the big, public toilets before she had used them she said to me:

• "When you're not holding me, I will sooo drown." A lot of reassurance was given that this was not going to be the case.