Potties and Princesses

Caitlin was doing so well for a while with the potty. Jon and I made the mistake of getting excited that we were done with that part of raising children.

Then Caitlin decided that she wanted to go back to the ease of being a baby again.

She won't ask to go. She yells no if asked about it.

She will go in her pants regardless of the consequences.

So I decided to try something different.

She gets a piece of candy if she goes in the potty and her panties are dry.

But I purchased several little dolls (princesses).

I hung the first one up on the linen closet door in the bathroom.

She understood that she would get this princess if her panties stayed dry all day.

She still gets the candy, but at the end of the day if there were no accidents she could have the princess.

She saw this every time she went potty and every time she walked by the bathroom.

 
At the end of the evening when we put her in her night time pull up we gave her the princess and praised her for keeping dry all day.
She is in love with her princess.
So lets see if day 2 can have the same results.

Caitlin

Caitlin has had a week of potty training and is doing so well. She's had a few accidents, but for the most part she remembers to ask us before she gets to panic status.

We are so proud of her.

She loves her princess panties and getting candy after she goes.

Potty Time

Caitlin went pee pee in the potty all by herself today!

She had acted interested in going when we were in the hotel back in August. But we were out of the hotel all morning and she was napping in the afternoon so I ignored her. It just wasn't convenient. Then back in October I decided it was time. So I took a day with nothing going on and had the little "you are a big girl" talk. She said yes and then proceeded to totally ignore everything she was supposed to do. By the end of the day I had given up. She just wasn't interested. I figured I would start again in January after the holidays.

She came up to me about an hour ago and asked to go potty. If she asks we take her. But she's never done anything. Today she did! So we gave her some candy and really praised her. Just now she did it again. Silly girl is not going to follow my time table. It appears that she is now ready. So here we go. It will be funny if she potty trains herself. =)

Potty Time

Caitlin has been giving us signs that she's ready to potty train for quite some time. At first I was hesitant because she wasn't communicating very well. But then she started trying to talk and signing even more. And then we were moving. I didn't want to have her regress because we were going through so much change. So I sort of ignored the little signs.

But Jon hasn't been so reluctant to let his little girl grow up. Because of the room darkening shades in the hotel room Caitlin has been taking some fantastic naps. So she's usually still asleep when Jon gets home at 4:15pm. Since he's home he is able to get her up from her nap and cuddle with her while she wakes up. Today he asked her if she wanted to go potty when he got her up and she said yes.

Since we are in a hotel we don't have the child potty seat with us and so he had to hold her so she wouldn't fall in. She made a face when I started taking pictures. I guess she thought I was being silly. =)

Caitlin went pee pee in the potty. She was so proud of herself! It was precious. 

She got lots of praise and a cookie. 

Good job little bug!!!

Oops!

Dominic and I (and of course, Caitlin) had a rather interesting day. I didn't have anything planned so I asked Dominic this morning what he wanted to do. He requested the lending library. I threw some things into the diaper bag and we set off. After I left Jon called on the cell and we made plans to meet for lunch.

We get to the lending library and Dominic has to pee. I remembered that the toilet was a very high one and they didn't have a step stool. I told him to wait while I got Caitlin settled and I'd help.

"No, Mom, I can do it all by myself."

I came in to find him bouncing up and down while he peed trying to get the pee into the toilet. As you can guess it was shooting out in this wonderful up and down stream all over everything. When he turned around (still peeing) and saw me standing there he yelped and grabbed himself w/ the front of his shirt (still peeing). I had the hugest mess to clean up. I couldn't just leave it there. I turned around and saw a pile of very soggy clothes and no Dominic. I rushed out of the bathroom and there is my son in all his nakedness at the front door of the library. A UPS guy came in about then and his eyebrows went up and I heard a gasp and "OH! MY, little boy!" Dominic laughed and said "Hi, I'm a nakey bum!" Sigh!

I would have headed home, but I'd make arrangements to meet Jon for lunch and to drop off some things at a friends house. So I put part of his wet clothes back on him and we headed to Target. He is now the proud owner of a new outfit complete w/ underwear. It is Thomas the Train and he's so proud of it that he's been dropping his drawers all day to show everyone. =)

That will definitely teach me to check the diaper bag twice before heading out the door.