Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Baths, Potty Training, and Crawling

Since Ben is getting better and better at sitting up on his own, I decided to cut bath time in half and let them bathe together (with Ben using this awesome bath seat handed down from a church friend--Thanks Moons).  

They LOVED it! 

And potty training has officially begun at our house!


Here's how the timeline has gone:

  • June 5th- First time going pee in the little potty chair.
  • Went potty in the big and little potty chair off and on for the next month or so, but only when I asked her if she wanted to go.  And even then, she wouldn't go every time.  She'd either say no or ignore me...  She also enjoyed showing off for guests to show them she could "go" on the big potty.  
  • July 11th- Started a sticker chart.  I told her at the end of the sticker chart we would try big girl underwear.  
  • I continued to read her many potty books and checked out a few potty training videos from the library.  
  • The sticker chart ended up being WAY too long and she lost interest, big time!
  • Sept. 13th- Checked out Potty Power! from the Library.  My s-i-l, Laurie, swears by this movie!  And sure enough, after watching it daily, by the end of the week, McKenna was asking to wear underwear.  I had a lot of errands to run that week so I put it off until Monday when I knew we could be home all day for several days in a row.
  • Sept. 19th- Put potty chair in the kitchen, dressed McKenna in a shirt and underwear only, and explained she'd get a jelly bean every time she peed in the potty.  I also explained she would still wear a diaper during sleep time.  She had one accident the first day, two accidents the second day, and one accident for the next two days.  Friday and Saturday she stayed completely dry!!  Her nap and night time diapers are even a little dryer than normal.  Sunday was a crazy day, so she unfortunately had two accidents that day.  But so far this week--zero!  I have also moved the potty chair from the kitchen to the bathroom where it belongs. :)  Every time she goes in the potty she says, "You're so proud of me!"    
  • The only major problem so far is the whole going #2 thing.  She's only going about every 4 days (in a diaper) where she used to go pretty regularly everyday.  I don't know if she's scared to go #2 in the toilet or what?  We've tried dumping the diapers in the potty to show here where the poop goes.  I've tried letting her take books and toys to the bathroom to keep her entertained while she has to sit for a while.  But she still only sits for 1-2 minutes at a time.  I know she won't poop in front of me, and when I leave her alone she just gets off the potty because she's bored.  We've also offered to buy her "princess stuff" when she does finally go #2 on the potty.  (Is that too abstract?  Should we buy something first and then let her play with it only when she does the deed?)   
Anyway, so at what point can I declare she's "potty trained?"  Cause I'm feeling pretty good about how things are going.  I don't want to get my hopes up and I know we still have a long road ahead of us (I've heard ALL kids regress at some point or another).  But I'm still very excited and pleased with the progress!  

Hope this wasn't a TMI post.  It's just, this has been my life lately. :) 

Oh, and Ben is MOBILE!!  He's been army crawling/worming since Sept. 8th!  He's pretty fast and just yesterday got on his hands and knees and started rocking.  The baby gate is up and ready or not, this new stage in life is here! :)   

10 comments:

Hksedwick said...

I love that the potty chair was in the kitchen!! Well here's hoping for twosies in the potty.

Kellie said...

So much going on at your house! Love the bathtime pics! Good work on potty-training...I'm heading there soon...although I'd really like to just pay someone to train him for me :)

ME Moon said...

completely potty trained??? depends on the kid's temperament. jonah NEVER wore a pull up in his life, he was night/sleep potty trained from day 1. but he still has potty issues because he doesn't want anyone, least of all his body, to tell him what to do.
sophie potty trained on her own in 2 months. had a couple accidents after that....then nothing since.
was that helpful info or depressing? ;)

Butler Family said...

that is awesome that she is doing so well potty training. Way to go. And I LOVe that bath seat. That is an amazing thing for the kids

Jessica said...

You're a trooper. I hate potty training. I wait until they are 3 and then give them a countdown to panties and after that we are good to go. Anne however wasn't having any of that so by the time we were creeping up on her 4th birthday I told she was in charge of her diapers. She changed herself for about a week and realized how much easier it is when she goes in the toilet. Is that lazy parenting? I don't know, but it worked for me. :o)

Alyson said...

Christian didn't go #2 in the potty for months after he was otherwise trained. I consider that my fault, but the comfort I can offer you is that everyone does, indeed, eventually end up potty trained. :) Hooray for the crawling and the potty training!

stephanie624 said...

I never want to potty train again! Reese is almost 5 and I think I can finally say that she is fully potty trained. It has been 2.5 years of success and then regression over and over again. Emery is nearing potty training age and I am so not excited.She sounds like she is doing great, but if she falls back into old habits, don't get too frustrated like I did, because she is not the only one.

Melissa said...

Wow awesome mile stones, perhaps McKenna is more open to mommy being around when she goes #2 then you think. She may need some cheering on, the first couple times with Huds I had to catch him near execution put him on the pot and cheer him on. We had a lot of discussions about the fact that he needed a big one to earn the candy or prize or whatever. He really wasn't keen on it at first either. I like to think most kids take their time, she will get it.

hillary and britton said...

your family photos are adorable! Potty training is really tough---hang in there! :)

Laura said...

When I was potty training Katie I almost started a separate blog just about my experience with potty training. It was SO hard! I don't blame you for writing it all out (plus it will help you remember what you did for when you potty train Ben.) Congrats on the success.

And I hear you about the #2 issue. That was hard for us too. Oh man, I'm dreading it with Lindsay, but I just need to bite the bullet and do it. Thanks for the inspiration! :)