Potty Training

I guess we started officially potty training Anya a few days ago. It wasn't quite my intention to start now, but something in her little brain clicked the other week and she gets it. I'd love to take credit for it, with all the talking about it and putting her on the potty for the past 6 months. But I really think it was hanging out with the nanny share kids those few hours each week that made it really sink in. The others there are all potty trained (and 3+), so she gets to see all the big kids doing it.

She was giving lots of signs of readiness and going to the potty on her own a fair amount at home. So Monday I just decided to see what would happen if I put her in underwear at home and pull-ups when out in public (and naps). She initially had lots of accidents, but also requested the bathroom when we were out at stores or a playground. And each day there was a little improvement.

I'm proud to say that today (day 5 I guess) she only had one mild accident, and quickly corrected herself by heading straight to the potty. So I'm going to continue with the underwear and pull-ups route and officially call it potty training. I'm pretty proud of my little girl right now :-)

Potty time, excellent!

So after two long weeks, our daughter is now potty trained. We're so proud of Anya. Diaper-free life is wonderful!


Just kidding. Actually, I got lazy and more or less gave up on the idea for now. She still announces her bowel movements most of the time, but it tends to be while I'm in the middle of something and/or don't feel like rushing her to her potty. I was reading up on the subject, and it's sort of pointless to focus on it too much right now anyway.

In order to potty train successfully, two conditions need to be satisfied. 1) Child needs to be aware of need to go to the bathroom. (check). and 2) Child must desire to be clean. Potty training readiness tends to happen around 2-1/2 years or so for most girls. As a now 14 month old, Anya doesn't mind walking around in a soiled diaper.

So any potty training we do now is just training *us* (to rush her to the bathroom), not really the kid. So for now, we just read her potty book often because she likes it so much (it's called Once Upon a Potty if anyone is curious). I still plan on setting her on her potty when the timing works out and getting her used to the idea. She certainly is not afraid of the potty, and gives it kisses in greeting (ew) and puts the removable pot part on her head (again, ew, but it's clean), and sits on it for fun. Love thy toilet, I guess.

1 down

1 successful "poo" on the "potty". Well done, baby. Off to Third Place Books to get some potty books for her before the weather gets worse.

"Poo"

Since about 2 weeks ago, Anya has surprised us by announcing her bowel movements. Over half the time, she has yelled out "poo!" right before a bowel movement or passing gas. So we're going to take advantage and start some preliminary potty training this weekend. I'll put her kid potty in the bathroom and get some books to read to her on the subject and we'll see how it goes. I can't believe she's 13 months old and we're already talking about this. But it sure would be nice to clean up less poopy diapers. Crazy.