Adventures in Potty Training

For quite some time now we have been talking, reading and showing Lea how to use the potty. We have tried various methods to get her interested and nothing has seemed to work. She is just too smart for bribery and it will just have to be on her terms. So we’ve been a little more slack lately and letting her decide when she’s ready and the interesting part, is that it’s working! A couple of weeks ago, I came home from work to learn that she had gone on the potty, on her own. During the afternoon she did NOT want to wear a Pull-Up after being changed so, Bee reminded her what to do if she needed to go potty and she agreed and off she went bare bottomed. She shocked Bee by asking to go potty, and not on the little potty but the BIG potty. We have an insert so Bee used that and sure enough she went. For a few days that was her regular pattern. Of course there is much fanfare and Smarties (choc candies) when she actually goes. I was working quite a few days in a row and she was going everyday that I was at work. I was starting to be afraid that she would only go when I wasn’t home.

During her bath one night, she proclaimed that she needed to go potty so I sat her on the regular potty without the insert and she was able to hold herself up and even went pee to boot. She shocked us a few days later while resting on the couch (she had high fevers for a couple of days) by getting up off the couch, taking down her pants and Pull Ups and going potty. This was the first time that she had made the connection that she had the urge while actually dressed. I was under the impression that she was going when she had nothing on because she had no safety net so to speak. So when she decided to go while clothed, it signaled progress!

It has stayed that way for quite some time. Her deciding to go on the potty when she wants to. We try to remind or ask her if she needs to go and so far it’s been hit or miss. She has been going at least once a day sometimes a few times a day. She has also decided to go only on the big potty with no insert. This does not bother me one bit. Yesterday Bee was with her and she went into the bathroom, used her little potty as a stool and climbed up on the toilet all by herself and went. We were both shocked and awed that she could do that and very very pleased since hopefully soon she will be able to go on her own when she pleases.

This morning I am home alone with the girls since Bee is working an overtime day shift (lots of cashola!!! And he figures he has to say yes once in a while). I was peacefully sleeping until Lea came to stand beside the bed to announce that she went potty. In my haze I was confused because there is no stool and only a big potty upstairs. But, she had no bottoms on and seemed to have gone???? I asked her to show me how she had gotten on the potty and she would not repeat her acrobatics. I am really really interested to see how she managed that!

The funny thing is that now that she has been going more regularly, she is not as interested in the candy that we were offering as a reward. I wonder if that means that it is becoming a habit for her?

The next step, getting her to wear underwear…