Monday, October 13, 2008

My Girl Likes to Potty All the Time

Yes, the photo makes The Squeak look like an old hand on the ol’ porcelain plastic throne but photos can be deceiving. She’s really just in it for the book reading.

We started the path to potty training* sort of by accident; we receive a potty as a gift. Rather than force it on Squeaker (the pediatrician said two years is about the time to start, so we’re still four months out), we figured we’d put it in the bathroom and let her ease into it. Figuratively speaking, of course.
*the path of a thousand miles starts with the first pee

A couple of weeks ago, she started pointing at her diaper and saying, “Poopies?”. We’d check and nothing would be there. A few minutes later, there would be a distinct odor.

Putting two and two together (no pun intended), we decided to offer the “potty experience” the next time she gave us a sign.

When the sign came we scooped her up, stripped her down, and sat her on the throne. Squeak wasn’t very interested, standing up every few minutes. So we grabbed a book (one of the great toilet pastimes) and read to her.

And finally, after 10 minutes, we called it quits.

But on the next try, we got gold! Well, yellow really.

And since our first success, we’ve repeated it a few times, even scoring a true poopies.

We’re not hardcore about it. We are trying to build a routine – when we get up in the morning, when we get home from daycare and before bed. If we get results, we applaud and practically put it in a jar for display; and if The Squeaker doesn’t want to sit on the potty, no big deal.

But I won’t lie. It would be nice to not have two in diapers.