potty training!

potty training, here we go! sophie's taking the lead and wants to use the toilet! hooray! she's going to prove me wrong. on memorial day, i purchased two more boxes of papers diapers (mainly because i got $20 off for buying two but also because i didn't think she'd be potty trained in 3 months). i'm now hoping i can return the second box (for cash, not store credit but that probably won't happen since i don't have a receipt). for the past month, i have let sophie try out the toilet whenever she asked. sometimes a little poop came out, most times, nothing. however, she was excited. then she lost interest, and then it came back so we bought some underwear. how lucky for sophie that walmart sells frog underwear. we've been talking to her a lot about using the toilet and last week she saw her cousin (who is only 9 days older) wearing underwear. this helped spark some interest so we began experimenting with underwear. she's only had a couple accidents. pooping is so much easier than peeing. never has she told me she needed to pee but she'll tell me she has to poop and then goes. this girl spends so much time in the bathroom "trying" because she wants to go and she knows if she does smarties are waiting for her. i think this is one reason we haven't had many accidents...she's in the bathroom all. the. time. it's exhausting sometimes! oh, well, whatever works. she constantly tells me she's done with diapers but i'm not sure i'm ready to venture out of the house in underwear. i mentioned to her she'd have to wear a diaper to story time at the library tomorrow and she got so upset. maybe i should give it a try? i just hate for her to pee all over the library carpet.... she's so proud of herself and is her own best cheerleader saying, "yay, sophie" each time she goes in the toilet. molly is also very into sophie using the toilet and usually has to accompany sophie to the bathroom each time. she takes great pride in letting me know when sophie is ready to wipe and even "taught" sophie to wipe while i was in the shower yesterday. she always wants to know what underwear sophie will pick out to wear. tonight we took a walk and i made sophie sit on a towel, folded multiple times, just in case. she fell asleep and molly continually checked to make sure sophie was still dry. actually, now that i'm thinking about it, molly was probably the most instrumental part of sophie's potty training interest because i'd catch her whispering to sophie when she'd use the bathroom, "do you want to try" and then come running to me letting me know that sophie wanted to try. she invited sophie into the bathroom many times when she was going. aren't big sisters great? so here we go...day 3 tomorrow. molly was trained in a weeks time...i'm wondering if sophie will be just as quick. my guess is no, but we're moving in the right direction! 

just when i think we've got it all figured out

molly's regressed a lot with her potty training these past few days. just when we thought she had nailed it, (we even bought her the toys she wanted as a reward) accidents have been happening quite frequently. we're not sure why she is having them either. she was doing so well telling us when she had to go or just going on her own. now, we're back to constant reminders and it's almost a battle sometimes.

part of the battle is pooping. she's eaten too much cheese these past few days and tried to poop on thursday but it hurt, so now, it's like she's afraid to poop - fear of pain. she will poop in her underwear though....maybe she thinks the toilet makes her hurt? not sure. we've laid off the cheese though and are pushing lots of fruit!

i'm hoping this little regression doesn't last too long. it was so nice to have her using the toilet, and messy underwear is worse than a diaper! we took away her toys that she got for using the toilet too and told her as soon as she's back on track she'll get them back. hoping this makes an impact as she was upset that the toys were taken away. she does understand why and knows that she got them for using the toilet and will get them back when she stops having so many accidents. now, i know accidents will happen - but they should be happening 3-4 times a day - especially when they weren't happening at all.

potty training

whoever said that the kid has to decide when they're ready to use the toilet and be finished with diapers is right! matt and i have been talking to molly for months now about using the toilet and being a big girl. she sat on it a few times, but mainly wasn't interested - to the point sometimes of throwing a huge fit when we mentioned it. she wasn't ready...

until thursday evening when she told matt she wanted to go to the bathroom - and she did! the rest of the evening in fact! matt, however, was the only one allowed to take her. this continued friday morning and early afternoon. we had a break through at the mall when she let me take her for the first time. yes, we let her wear underwear in public not even 24 hours after she started using the toilet. i thought it might be a bit crazy but she was doing so well and so we ran with it. so glad we did to because she did great.

molly's had a few accidents since thursday but not an overwhelming number and they're so spread out that i can deal with them. i will say that potty training can be exhausting. the girl goes all the time! just a little bit each time, but we'll take what we can get.

when she tries to use the bathroom and nothing comes out, she tells us, "nothing in my butt!" i love way toddlers form words and sentences!

my girl is growing up! this is one thing thoughi'm very grateful for. i don't want her to grow up too fast but potty training was one of those things i wanted to rush. check her out in her undies!