Making Water and Seeing Water

We decided to revisit potty training with the kiddo on Tuesday, after a few-month hiatus. I thought I'd try a reward chart and see if it had any effect. Each time she goes on the potty instead of her pull up and washes her hands, she gets to put a stamp in a square. After 24 stamped squares, she gets a reward. In this case, it's a trip to the aquarium. Anya is very pleased to announce she stamped her last square yesterday, so we went to the aquarium this morning for her reward. It only took 5 days. Not so bad for a kid that told me she'd prefer to just go in her pull-up.

I have a love/hate relationship with the aquarium. No, scratch that. I love the aquarium. I really hate crowds (and doubly hate crowds with many a gigantic stroller gumming up the flow), so we rarely go. But it was pleasant this morning at 9:30, with the run of the place mostly to ourselves. Anya had a grand time, touched the sea stars, saw the otters and seals, and mostly ran from exhibit to exhibit. Totally worth it.

I don't know that she really *got* how the reward chart works. Since nearly every time she stamped a square, she'd announce that it was time to go to the aquarium and we'd have to explain again how the system worked to a disappointed child. But I figure after another reward chart filled or two, she'll understand how it works. I think with this next one, the reward will be the zoo. Half, because I'm lazy. I'm secretly happy to take her to the zoo anytime, since it's so close by and we've got a membership. But she loves it so much that I want the reward to be something she really looks forward to. I don't know what the reward will be after this chart. Maybe withhold seeing her grandparents so she's really motivated to go on the potty to get to see them again. Just kidding :-) I'll happily take any ideas. Except for toys. She's not really motivated by those and we don't need any more stuff cluttering up the house.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of her that she finished one chart. She still had plenty of accidents (on-purposes), so the goal is to keep her motivated (without pushing her) until going on the potty is second-nature. According to friends, it takes about 3 weeks, so we'll see. She's pretty stubborn and independent, so I imagine this next year will be full of slip-up periods (read: I don't feel like it periods) where she has lots of accidents after she's "trained".