Potty Training

We have officially started potty training at the Prather house.  I have been reading every book, article, blog post by experienced mom, talked to friends and family trying to figure out what the secret to cracking the code on potty training.  The biggest consistent component that everyone has said is your toddler has to ready. This is different for every kid. Caroline has been ready for a while.  Her school has done most of the leg work for me. Although most of the books say stay away from pull ups it is what they required at school and what she has been using for the past 4 months. Her teacher takes the kids every 2 to 3 hours in groups of 5 so she has lots of practice.

All last week we have been talking about using the big girl potty. I cleared 3 days off the calendar where we would have nothing to do.  I got a few potty board books from Hastings and the library and we have been watching Daniel Tiger Potty episode on Netflix.  Daniel Tiger says "When you have to go potty stop and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way."  We also let Caroline pick out her big girl panties last weekend. She picked Cinderella, Belle, and Tangled princess panties. Chris cleaned up the backyard because we knew we would be spending a lot of time out there.  Now it was time to get our hands dirty.... literally.  

Day One:

 Most of the successful attempts from moms say to start out with toddlers with nothing on from the waist down until they get the hang of it.  I decided the less laundry the better. So when Caroline woke up she was striped down from the waist down and got to keep her favorite elephant PJ shirt on. We ate breakfast and started drinking lots of liquids {I even let her have gatorade and her dad's tea} then hung out in the kitchen with the lady bug potty close and in sight.  The first accident she had she right in the middle of coloring and looked a little confused. I put her on the potty where she put 3 drops in the bottom. I gave her lots of praise. "Way to Go Caroline!!! You did it!!" She looked at me funny and I cleaned up the mess.  She had about 5 more of these accidents and she started to get frustrated.  I kept calm because I knew she would get it around and at 11:00 am she told me she needed to potty and she did! I followed her around all day and she didn't have another accident.  We played outside most of the day and finally got to wear big girl panties. She decided she wanted a pair on her bottom and one on her head. Silly kid!

Day Two:

 Went great! She got to wear her big girl underwear all day we even went to the park for 40 minutes and brought the lady bug with us just incase.  She ran around like a crazy person and we were so glad to have a successful trip under her belt. At home while playing in her room she told all her animals: "Lamby is a big boy" {put him on the potty} "tell Ms. Caroline to go potty".  Then all the animals got to get a turn.  I guess following her around telling her "remind mommy if you need to potty" must be rubbing off. Daddy took her to get a chocolate milk as a reward for doing so good but really to get more practice in. 

Hope we are on the good side of this.... a lot of the blog post say mistakes they made were after they thought their toddler had it down and quit asking them if they needed to potty so I will continue to annoy the toddler until she goes to kindergarden.  My baby is growing up!