I think Zoey has been receptive to potty training for awhile now, but it's been difficult to really commit to it when I have to leave the house to go to work. Zoey really seems to do best in "all-or-nothing" settings so I figured this week would be the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl.
This morning I told her we're "all done diapers", explained the potty options (big potty in the bathroom vs mini porta-potty), and let her go commando around the house:
She felt a little weird about it at first and kept asking to put her diaper on, but it wasn't long before she was climbing the couch in all her half-naked glory and putting her pressed hams on the window for all the neighborhood to enjoy. My strategy was basically to pump her full of liquids and put her on the potty every 10-15 minutes, rewarding her with M&Ms for making a deposit. Of course nothing ever goes according to plan though when you have two ankle biters running amok and while I was trying to pull Finn out of the cabinet he had accidentally crawled in (and was somehow lodged in a crock pot), Zoey had her first accident and peed on floor. Accident #2 came shortly thereafter but I was able to scoop her up and put her on the mini potty to finish doing her business, she was subsequently rewarded with M&Ms and a song-and-dance number by me. My showtunes had little effect on her, but the M&Ms hit home. It only took that first M&M for her to get the message and she proceeded to walk over to the potty 5 more times throughout the morning, pee, exclaim her victory over her own urine and immediately request her M&M reward. I love bribery.
I was a little worried though when it was time to lay Finn down for a nap. Number one our upstairs is mostly carpeted and I'd much rather clean pee off a hardwood floor. Number two while I give Finn a bottle and lay him down, Zoey has about 20 minutes of unsupervised time where she can pretty much pee on anything she wants (Sidenote, haha I just said "number one" and "number two" in a potty training blog.... yeah I'm 12). Anyway, I put the mini potty in Finn's room, hoping I could encourage Zoey to go on it while I rocked him. She was having none of that, took the potty out of his room and left. I was convinced I was going to walk out of his room to find a giant poo on my pillow, sheets soaked with pee, and her wearing the potty for a hat. It was awesome instead to find a potty full of pee! She peed on it all by herself with no prompting, go Zoey! The rest of the morning and early afternoon went really well with no problems, she peed on the potty by herself each time. I thought it was funny though, when she peed on the mini potty she would just carry it around the house and pee whenever she felt like it. But when she peed in the bathroom she absolutely wanted the door closed and to be alone. This is her kicking me out of the bathroom:
Since the day went so well, I decided to try her out in underwear. It was a little harder in the underwear, she wasn't as inclined to rush to the potty and I don't know if the sensation of underwear made her feel like she was wearing a diaper again. But the afternoon also got busy, Zoey got distracted with visitors and I wasn't quite as attentive to putting her on the potty every 10-15 minutes. So we lost focus and had a few accidents. She was also getting tired. But she definitely loved wearing underwear and had a fun time picking out which ones to wear.
Yeah, that's her walking around the house in my sneakers. But look how cute her little toddler butt looks in big-girl underwear, ha!
So we'll be back at it again tomorrow. She did great today for a first attempt, I'm hoping we can continue the strong start through the whole day tomorrow.
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