Potty Training 101

And the fun officially begins! Annabelle has actually been interested in using the potty to go tee tee and poo poo since September 21st, but I have officially started the forge ahead battle of potty training.

I cannot believe it has already been a month since she became interested. And, honestly, I did not mean for a month to fly by before I encouraged her to continue potty training since she was already interested in the potty. As she's asked to go "tee tee potty mommy," I have taken her to the potty and removed her diaper for her to tee tee in the potty, but I haven't pushed her to use the potty during the day when she was already wearing a diaper.

Interestingly enough, I started allowing her to walk around naked with only a shirt on once she started acting interested and started using the potty. Whenever I kept her in a diaper, she would not tell me that she needed to go potty, and instead, she would just tee tee in her diaper. However, when I allowed her to walk around naked, she was very quick to tell me that she needed to go "tee tee potty mommy" whether that meant tee tee or poo poo.

She did have several tee tee accidents, and only one poo poo accident, but it worked fairly well. Of course, the poo poo accident was disgusting to clean up, but she tried several times to go potty as she knew that her tummy was telling her that she needed to go, but she just didn't make it that third time on the way to the potty. And, yes, she was naked. But, fortunately, the prize landed on my wood floors instead of my carpet.

So, on October 11th, hubby and I took Annabelle to Wal-Mart to pick out "big girl panties." On Monday, October 20th, Annabelle and I met my parents at Babies 'R' Us to pick out a "big girl potty." And, today, October 21st, we officially started our three to four day potty training escapade. We will be going nowhere as of 2:00 p.m. today through Saturday morning.

I can already tell it is going to be a long few days. From 5:00 p.m. on, I started the potty training by reintroducing the "big girl potty" and "big girl panties." I told Annabelle that she does not want to tee tee or poo poo on the princesses on her "big girl panties" because it will make the princesses very sad. As her reward for going tee tee or poo poo in the potty, she gets a sticker, one sticker for tee teeing and two stickers for poo pooing.

Annabelle learned how to dump the "big girl potty" pot the first time she tee teed in the potty, and she has insisted "me" ever since which is her way of telling me that she wants to empty and rinse the pot all by herself. Lovely, right?!?! This child is so independent! I try really hard not to discourage this independence though. She loves to help me, and she is learning how to be assertive which will serve her well in her future.

Also, whenever she washes her hands after going potty, she insists "me." If I try to help her get the soap out of the soap dispenser or scrub her hands, she'll say, "me!"

Then, I made the mistake of letting Annabelle choose her sticker. Therefore, we probably spend 5 minutes deciding on the perfect sticker. She is already a little negotiator as she'll try to negotiate for "two" stickers instead of the one. "No, two mommy," she'll say. So far, I've been able to persuade her that she only gets one sticker instead of two stickers unless she goes poo poo in the potty. I have explained to her that she'll get two stickers when she goes poo poo in the potty. I'm still wondering why I didn't just give her a sticker instead of giving her the option, but my thoughts are that I am teaching her to make decisions and to learn that even though there is a jar full of stickers, she can only have one for tee tee and two for poo poo.

After she chooses her sticker, I have a small notebook that she places her sticker into. She seems to love using the "sticker book" as she calls it to place her sticker. I have then so far written the date and time next to the sticker. Of course, the time used is the time that we finally make our way into the kitchen to choose a sticker. It doesn't account for the 15-20 minutes we spent in the bathroom pulling down Annabelle's panties, dumping the pot, rinsing the pot, deciding that we need to try and go potty again, running away from Mommy as Mommy says, "No Annabelle, you have to wash your hands before you get a sticker," and then finally starting to struggle of "me" washing her own hands and drying her own hands.

So, this is lots of fun, and I am still trying to figure out who in their right mind would decide to start potty training their child the week that their husband is out of town! Oh yeah, that would be me!

But, I am afraid to wait any longer because Annabelle has already been interested in potty training for a month! I am afraid that if I wait that she'll decide she is no longer interested, and it is easier to just tee tee or poo poo in her diaper.

I am not expecting to have her potty trained in three days, by the way! I know this will take time, but I feel that she needs as much consistency as possible to get this potty training rolling. And, then, maybe I can save $30-$40 per month on diapers!

So, wish me luck! I know I am going to be at my wits end by Friday night when hubby gets home late after Annabelle is asleep, but who knows, maybe she'll be on her way to never wearing diapers again. Ha! Wishful thinking, I know!