Potty Central

I must say, this whole potty-training thing wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I was so scared of starting this, afraid my whole day would be filled with cleaning clothes and carpets and that we wouldn't be able to leave the house for weeks on end. Chess is 28 months old, so I thought we would wait awhile, but after reading a book called Diaper Free Before Three, I changed my mind. I totally recommend it! Very smart advise. I checked mine out at the library.

We started on Saturday of Labor Day weekend b/c I wanted Jared to be home with me and have a full three days without diapers, before I had to do it by myself with the two kids. That proved to be a good idea b/c Lera loves the bathroom a little too much, and tries to crawl or push her way in whenever we are in there. It's not so bad upstairs, where the bathrooms are bigger, but in the little half bath downstairs, it's quite frustrating.

So, Saturday morning Chess sat and sat and sat, but her diaper was wet, so I assumed she already went all she had to. We have been sitting on the potty in the mornings for awhile now, and she doesn't mind it at all. She reads books, plays with cars, and sings songs. An hour or so later, she peed in the kitchen. At least it was the kitchen!

We tried sitting on the potty a lot. Nothing. We played outside. I knew she must have to go. And she did while we were outside. At least there was no clean-up necessary! On to underwear #3 for the day. I was starting to get discouraged. More sitting. More playing. Nothing.

Before bath we sat and sat again. Then, she did it! Pee in the potty and she looked so surprised and so excited. I was so excited, too. We decided not to do any type of rewards, except showing how proud we are of her. I've read a few books on potty-training, and decided this was the way we wanted to do it. It's so cute b/c she says, "I'm so proud of myself," b/c it says that in a book we checked out from the library. I also recommend it, it's called My Big Girl Potty.

We put a diaper on for bed, b/c I'm not ready for night time bed changing. She woke up dry and the next two days she didn't have any more accidents! We had #1's and #2's in the potty. It was fabulous. She just got it. She sat on the potty a lot those two days, but she got faster and better able to control her muscles in just a few more days after that.

It has now been two weeks and she has only had one accident and a few close calls, but that was all in the first week. She has totally impressed me. We have gone potty at other people's houses and in public potties without a problem. We have gone on hikes and long car rides and she has done great. She now tells me when she has to go, and I only ask her to go a couple of times a day, especially just before leaving to go somewhere.

I know all kids are different, but I am so thankful she is doing so well. I really didn't have anything to be worried about. And I love thinking of how much money we are saving by not buying diapers for her!

Another recommendation I have is the little potties we use. We got them at Ikea, and they are one-piece, easy-to-clean and only $4 each! We bought four so they could go in all the bathrooms and one in the car.