February 25, 2008

Before we start today off, I have to share Cute Things My Kids Said.

Adam: Who's that king, emperor of the world? Oh yeah, God.

After school on Friday, Alex was building a pretend fire with a fire circle. He was using rocks for the fire circle and eventually ran out. He started using pine cones and I asked him if pine cone could burn. He said in exasperation, "Mommy, it's just a pretend fire."

7:15 Drop off. Breakfast - bogurt and oatmeal.

8:00 Dropped Alex off at school. When we got home, it was the official start of

Potty Training Boot Camp

Our first step, saying goodbye to diapers. I sang "bye bye diapers" while Ariel put them in the trash can. And then, when she wasn't looking I pulled them out because we don't really throw away unused diapers, not when Hannah can wear them.

Then we put back on our pants, but not underwear. The mere mention of underwear sent Ariel into a near black-out rage so I didn't push it.

Here's Ariel with pants and no underwear and tappy-tappy shoes:



9:30 We had accident #1. Ariel didn't complain or tell me about it either. We put on more pants and no underwear.

To get things moving, I showed Ariel how to teach baby doll how to use the potty, and then baby doll got an m&m.

The potty is a bit big for baby, good thing the baby didn't end up in the real toliet:



I loaded Ariel up on liquids, including a juice box that I found in the back of the fridge:



The mere mention of "potty" also sent Ariel into a stiff screaming panic, but after I showed her that we could read books in the bathroom, she was all over it.



10:10 Ariel had another accident, this time involving #2. And when one is not wearing underwear and has on loose fitting pants, poop tends to just fall out a leg hole. FYI.

10:15 Shower.

Next, Baby put on underwear (picture Borat in a thong and you get the idea) and got an m&m. So then Ariel put on some underwear and got an m&m too:



11:00 A few more accidents. I think Ariel was no longer emptying her bladder into her pants but letting some out, then we would sit on the potty and nothing would happen and then we'd put underwear and pants on and she'd let out some more. But the improvement was, she cared her pants were wet, unlike the first accident.

11:10 Bad sign. Last pair of pants that Becky brought. That would be 6 pants in 3 hours.

11:25 Left to pick up Adam. I put a cloth diaper on Ariel's carseat just in case, but she was fine.

11:40 Got home. Had some spaghetti o's for lunch.

12:15 Pre-nap we finally got 10 drops of pee in the potty. We put pants back on and went to call Mommy and tell her all about it and then we had a huge accident.

12:30 Down for a nap. Lacking any pullups, Ariel wore a diaper that I pre-fastened and she pulled on like underwear.

Playing with Adam:



2:25 I had to wake up Ariel. Her diaper was a tad wet but we took it off right away. She sat on the potty but nothing happened and then we walked over to Alex's school.

2:40 Alex and Adam went to a playdate at Gabriel's house.

2:50 We got home and Ariel was still dry. She sat on the potty and we read and played with her phone and sang and read and and...

3:40 Finally! Success! Ariel peed in the potty! We celebrated by blowing out a pee-pee candle and having a thin mint. Uh, I guess I should say that was not the first thin mint, she had had a few already to get her to sit on the potty in the first place. And maybe a few m&m's too, but a lot of them were mini-sized.

3:50 Ariel had a slight running poopy accident. Sigh.

4:15 After only 5 minutes of sitting on the potty, Ariel had another good pee. Yay!

4:25 Pick up

So I thought we made really really good progress today, even though our accident to catch ratio was like 10:2. Ariel was screaming in rage at the mention of the potty in the morning and happily peeing by afternoon. And lest you feel sorry for Ariel, I think Ariel thinks this was the best day ever with Dee-Dee. I don't think Ariel has ever gotten one-on-one attention from me all day long. And I certainly haven't read to her for over 2 hours or loaded her up with cookies and candy.