Potty Trained (At Last!)

I always enjoy reading others’ posts about potty training (is that weird?) but I’m afraid I don’t have much advice to add to the game except this: know your kid, wait until they are ready, and always ALWAYS involve M&M’s.

We attempted potty training with Lily when she was about 2 ½. I knew she was ready physically and mentally, but turns out she just didn’t want to be potty trained yet. She is very strong willed and was fairly resistant to the whole idea, so we heeded people's advice not to push it, especially since we had a fairly new baby in the mix. The last thing we wanted was a power struggle.

Flash forward 6 months and with her third birthday looming we decided to try it again. My brilliant mom had ordered a watch timer that we could set to go off every 30 minutes. Lily was so excited about her watch and every time it played its little chime she ran to the bathroom. This was key because if we initiated it by asking, or telling, her to go sit on the potty she would not have it. We also promised M&M’s, which was like amazing to her. She had one accident the very first day when she yelled in shock “Nani, I’m peeing!” but that was it. It took a couple of days of just accidentally going when she was sitting there to really get the idea and start telling us. Seriously, after just a couple of days she had it, I was so proud. Never before becoming a mom would I think I could feel such pride in someone’s bodily functions.

I don’t think I need to go into too much detail, but some *ahem* functions have been a bit scarier/more difficult for her, but nothing a little Miralax couldn’t fix. Ok, I’m done.

The worst part about the whole thing was that you are supposed to use one word for everything (to cut down on confusion) and my mom started out saying “panties” *shudder*, one of my least favorite words second only to “moist” (it hurts just to type it). Other than that everything was much easier than we expected. Current bonuses include, but are not limited to: no more diapers (for her… come ON Mila!), tiny wedgies, and every time I leave the bathroom she shouts “You DID it! I’m so proud of you!” She is seriously the best.