Potty training!

1/16/13 Wearing underwear but just for a few minutes before bath

For my records.... if I ever need to potty train a kid again in like 5-6 years

If you had asked me when we were going to potty train a week ago I would have said... sometime after her 3rd birthday. I haven't had much desire, nor has Ava... well Ava hated diapers but she refused to go on the toilet. What has been going on is she would refuse to wear a diaper and once she needed to go she would want a diaper on and then want it off once she was done. This week I caught her completely undressing herself so that she could take her diaper off and throw it away. I caught her in the throwing it away part. I had been talking to my mom off and on about potty training since she had tried to get Ava to potty train while she was here in October. After talking to her again about it on Tuesday I decided we would just give it a try. I had read about a potty training method and just kinda went with a modified version of it.

The key parts were staying at home without interruptions. Giving them lots of liquids and snacks to give them lots of chances to go and just putting them in underwear and taking them to sit on the toilet every 15-30 minutes. If they went on the toilet give them a treat or a sticker and if they had an accident, immediately take them to the toilet even if there was nothing left and don't get mad at them for any accident or say its bad, etc.

First day she drank and drank and drank and peed and peed and peed on the floor. Every time she would sit on the toilet she would ask for toilet paper and immediately get off. By the evening I was pretty tired. Dan came home and tried helping with it. Finally we were both ready to give up and she asked to go potty! She walked herself into the bathroom, climbed on the toilet herself and went! It was the first time she had intentionally gone (not being an accident that we had caught at the end). I was so excited, Dan told me not to scream with joy as to not scare her!

I thought day 2 would be easier but she decided to take another route that day, she spent most of the day holding it and not going... she ended up having an accident or 2 but then by the evening she intentionally went again. At this point I wasn't totally sold that we were going to finish this potty training process but my mom called and told me to give it 5 days. I felt like maybe I was pushing Ava too much, too soon, but I told her I would give it till Sunday evening. Friday morning we started day 3. By 10:15am she walks right up to me and asks to go potty! She didn't have a single accident and went 6 times that day! I was over the moon that it was clicking :) Saturday was similar but we weren't pushing the liquid like the other 3 days. She had one accident that evening while I was gone, she just didn't tell Dan that she needed to go and she was distracted by a movie. Today was day 5 and she did great again, no accidents.

So here we are a few weeks from her birthday and she's potty trained! She's doing great and I even asked her today if she wanted to wear a diaper or use the potty and she did NOT want to use a diaper :) Woo we did it :)

So far weaning from a bottle, weaning from a pacifier, transitioning from crib to toddler bed to twin size bed... and potty training... All been pretty easy for Ava, but I think potty training was the most work out of all, but still not to bad!