We began this week by making the move from diapers to big girl underwear. Boy, was Monday rough. There were accidents all over the place! I believe the final tally was something like this:
Potty: 2
Kitchen floor: 2
Living room floor: 1
Bathroom floor (immediately next to the toilet): 2
# of underwear worn by my daughter that day: 23,000
By the end of the day Monday, I was ready to throw in the towel (and I'm not talking about all the towels that I threw into the washer after they were used to clean urine off the carpet). But many wise folk encouraged us to stay strong and give it at least one more day. And I knew that they were right. I just didn't want to have to put forth any more effort (especially not this week while I'm working on my homework and preparing for my big test).
So Tuesday morning, we woke up and put Riley in her underwear again. We kept on setting that microwave timer. Every 15-20 minutes, we'd head to the bathroom. We'd sit down, we'd wait, we'd get up. Once we were finished, we'd go on about our business and then Riley would mark her territory. Again.
Tuesday evening we discussed whether or not to continue. You know how "they" say not to force it, that that can just make it worse? In this case, I'm not so sure I agree. My fear was that if we backed off at this point and went back to diapers, we would be sending the wrong message--that if she just holds out long enough and pees on enough floors, then Mommy and Daddy will give in. So Wednesday we went right back to the drawing board, or more accurately, the underwear drawer.
On Wednesday, Caleb tried my older sister's suggestion of bribing with candy. See, we had been just doing the old stand by sticker chart. That worked beautifully with our first born (you know, the one who potty trained in virtually 3 days--the one who just "got it"). The sticker chart meant very little to Riley. That is, until we combined it with tootsie rolls and m&ms. (Yeah, we thought we would just switch to candy and skip the whole sticker chart thing altogether, but she wasn't having any of that.) Wednesday was a major break through day in Zustiaks' House of Urine. She finally seemed to grasp that we did not want to go potty in our pants anymore!
Fast-forward to today (Friday). It's just after 6:00 pm, and thus far, we haven't had any accidents (I'm afraid to even type that!)!!! She filled her sticker chart and she even got to go out in public--3 times (she had not left the house all week until today). She got to go to the store and pick out her first Potty sticker chart prize. And boy, did she pick a beaut--check out the My Little Pony below!
I do have couple of nice photos of my child sitting on the potty reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But, as of Monday she seemed to think she had to be completely clothing-free in order to use the restroom. In the interest of not embarrassing her and not upsetting my police-officer uncle who doesn't like me posting my kids' pictures anyhow, I decided to omit those. Trust me, they are CUTE!
2 comments:
Yay for Riley!! And yay for mommy and daddy for sticking to their metaphorical guns (although, I'm sure you wished for real guns every now and again). Send some of your good potty-karma down here, please. Leah is acting interested and, although she's really young (19 mos) I don't want to miss that window. Congrats again on being diaper-free!!
Good job all around! We do the "potty as novelty" act around 18 months, followed by the "let's sit on the potty at bath time" as they turn two, to "tell me when you want to try the potty during the day" around two and a half to "countdown to underwear" to going for it around 2 years 9 months. Who knows if this same routine will work with Lily? The day you put them in the undewear and just brace yourself is one of the scariest days! Although, Bob took it over with Eli and seemed to get him trained in the time it took me to visit the River Ridge Winery for a little Christmas lunch. I don't know if boys or girls are easier but I know every child is different! Anyway, again, yay for all of you!
Brooke
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