Saturday, April 30, 2011

For Realz

Potty Training: Day 1

I'm going to let you in on the mess of today. No need to put down food...nothing that will make you squeamish, hopefully. If you could care less about the bathroom activities of my two year old, please visit again in a few days. But, so I can remember this in 25-30 years, when Avery is possibly potty training her own child, I'm documenting the weekend.

No successes, by potty standards. We had one "finish" in the potty as we flew her bottom over to her little toilet. She got a sticker. We sang and danced. We high-fived. This was half-way through the day, after 2 accidents on our well-protected floors and lots of practice sitting. She napped, wearing a cute cloth pull-up I found on Etsy, and finally pooped. Just a small one, because she'd been holding it all. day. long.

After nap, she kept yelping and crossing her legs and saying "diaper change" and she'd even run to sit on the potty by herself sometimes, but she refused to go in it. Every single time. So, we had another wet accident.

I think by the end of the day we had 4 accidents total. But, she isn't minding sitting on the potty, especially if we prop her up with books or pull the laptop down and let her watch a few minutes of a movie. We sing a lot and practice our This Little Piggy or Itsy Bitsy Spider. She was given stickers for voluntarily sitting on the potty, for running to the potty when the timer went off, or for even just sitting there happily. If she'll pee or poop in it, I might even bring out the M & Ms. Lucky girl.

The logistics of set-up: We started the day with one all-weather blanket (waterproof), another old blanket, and tons of old towels. About an hour into it I ran to the store and picked up plastic drop cloths and carpet cleaner, thanks to accident #1. She went right NEXT to the all-weather blanket, instead of on it, and certainly not in the potty. We layed down the plastic and put the towels and blankets back over them. And we washed laundry all day long, cycling towels out. Notice the pile of clothes and towels on the couch? Her little potty migrated between the living room and the kitchen, wherever she was playing. We wanted something nearby in case we couldn't get her to her bathroom in time. We'll eventually bring everything to the bathroom after a couple days and hopefully get rid of our CPS (carpet protection system). She's allowed to run around with nothing on her rear end for the next 3 days, unless we venture out for a short trip to the playground.

We aren't attempting night-time training yet, so diapers still for that. I'll be using cloth pull-ups for naptime for the foreseeable future, and if we have to take a car trip this week.

Part of me is creeped out by a toilet in our main living space, but it can't be any grosser than pee on my carpet, so I'm going with it.

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