She DID IT!

We bought Nicole a toddler toilet seat and stool a few months ago in anticipation of her potty training some time after the baby was born.

One thing I figured out very quickly when we started trying to get her interested in potty training is that it is a lot of work! First, I have to explain how to use the toilet and then I have to try and describe how she knows WHEN she needs to use the toilet and then I had to take off her pants and diaper every single time she wanted to sit on the toilet and it just took up a lot of time. Plus, I was going through more diapers because I couldn't put a partially wet diaper back onto my child, that just felt wrong.

So, since we have the new baby, and it was a lot of work, we kinda stopped pushing the potty training. We figured that we would wait until SHE was more interested all on her own. In the mean time, we got her a Potty Power DVD to watch often.

Last night, I was about to put her diaper on after the bath when she said, "Momma, I have a pee pee."
And I said, "What?"
And she said, "I have to pee!"

Normally, I would just put the diaper on and call it a day because it was 9pm and it was time for her to go to bed, but instead, I said, "Okay, lets go and sit on the toilet."

She sat down on the toilet and then got off and got back on and got back off and back on (she did this a few times, she was obviously practicing her skills at getting off and on the toilet). I just let her go, doing her thing and I continued getting her ready for bed as she sat on the toilet (brushing her hair, putting lotion on, brushing teeth, ect...). Then, as I was getting ready to brush my own teeth, I heard it!

She peed all on her own! I thought she was just playing like she usually does, but she actually did it! I called Matt in and we cheered for her, which kind of scared the pee away for a bit, but then she finished and got to put money in her piggy bank (this is our current reward system for good behavior).

And, since she got so much positive attention for peeing, immediately washing her hands and putting money in the pig, she said, "Momma, I feel the poos coming!"

So, I let her sit on the toilet again and she grunted, but it was all for show and so I made her put her diaper on and go to bed.

So, we think we should go and get her some big girl underwear to wear over her diaper for a little while to get her excited and maybe some pull-ups so that I don't have to pull off her diaper every time she has to go to the bathroom.