Potty Training

It's official - we are in the midst (or near the end?) of potty training Lyla. It all started last winter when I bought Lyla an Elmo training potty.  She LOVED it.  She wanted to sit on it and try to use it.  She even peed in the thing several times.  Looking back, I probably should have just started training her back then when she was motivated and going, but I convinced myself she was too young, so I put it up for awhile until mom was ready for Lyla to be potty trained. 

 

Dustin and I set a date to start Lyla potty training on or before Labor Day Weekend.  I started by changing Lyla's diaper as soon as I noticed it was wet, and talking to her a lot about when she gone in her diaper.  She picked up pretty quickly - she already knew when she went #2, but she started also telling me when she wet her diaper as well.  We watched potty training videos and read books, Lyla's older cousin Sadie talked to Lyla about wearing "big girl" panties and how it was fun to go in the potty.  This seemed to resonate with Lyla and she kept talking about wearing panties like a big girl like Sadie.  Grammy helped the potty excitement process along by sending her some My Little Pony and Tangled princess panties.  Lyla wanted to put them on as soon as she got them, but we made her wait until she got the "going in the potty" thing down.

 

Once Lyla started to realize that going in the potty wasn't so horrible, and after realizing that she wouldn't be able to hold it until she got a diaper put on, she was ready to graduate to panties.  She always wanted to see herself wearing them in the mirror and admiring how pretty she was and what a big girl she had become.  She really loved the underwear designs, so we decided to add Hello Kitty and Tinkerbell panties to her collection.

 

 

For awhile, I will totally cop to the fact that I bribed Lyla with rewards for going in the potty.  Any time she peed, she got some of her favorite treat, chocolate goldfish.  I kept telling her that if she could poop in the potty, I'd give her an ice cream cone (which she never gets, so she was really motivated!).  Of course, the first time she went in the potty was after a lot of stress and fighting us and it was 45 minutes past her bedtime BUT, lo and behold, here is Lyla with her first "I poo-pooed in the potty ice cream cone treat", enjoyed in classy fashion right on the toilet.

 

We've been so lucky to have very few pee accidents in our panties and so far we haven't pooped in our panties (and I hope she never does either!).  This girl is so awesome, proving to be what I would assume to be pretty easy to potty train.  She's been at it for a week now, and had half of those days with no accidents at all.  We still have to stay on top of her to make sure she goes as I'm not quite sure she really knows in enough time what it truly feels like to have to use the restroom.  It's so worth it to take so many potty breaks just to hear my girl shout "I pee-peed in the potty!" and be so proud of herself and her accomplishments.  What a big girl!