Lily started the fun that is potty training today. Ryan and I have felt for about a year now (that's right, I said a year) that she was capable of being potty trained. However, there has been one excuse after another not to do it...Mia was being born, tax season was starting, my shoulder surgery, vacation, etc. Add to that the fact that Lily would say "no" if you ever asked if she wanted to use the potty, and you get an almost three year old in diapers. Of course, potty training is also the one issue that has always made me nervous about having kids; not being pregnant, not giving birth, not sleep-deprivation, but potty training. Patience is not my best virtue. All that to say, we haven't been too excited about it and haven't pushed it all, but really, I know Lily's ready and I'm sick of changing her diapers. So, I came up with a plan...
Yesterday I had a coupon to buy Kandoo soap at Target. It's overpriced soap that makes purple bubbles so the child can see that they are getting soap all over their hands. Well, Lily loves to wash her hands (which is a good habit of course, but she only likes it because it lets her play in water), and she loves pretty much all things purple. So I bought a bottle of it. I brought it home and let her wash her hands with it a couple of times; she loved it. Then I told her it was special soap that she could use again after she uses the potty. She pondered this and went to bed for the night.
This morning, Ryan left for Birmingham leaving me with the girls. Mia was down for her morning nap, and Lily said she needed a new diaper. I asked her if she wanted to put on big girl panties so she could learn how to use the big girl potty like me; she said no. I then added "and you can use your new special soap to wash your hands." She stopped in her tracks, put a huge grin on her face and said "OK!" So I put her in Dora panties she had picked out (she doesn't watch Dora on TV but she has a fascination with her right now) and a few minutes later, she said she wanted to sit on the potty. Nothing happened. She said said she wanted to wash her hands. I told her she could once she tee-teed in the potty, but I was proud of her for trying. A few minutes later she said she needed to use the potty, so we went back in. This time, she actually used it!!! I was thrilled! I started clapping and saying "Yea Lily!" She had such a big grin on her face; you could see she was so proud of herself. I showed her how to wipe, she pulled up her panties and said "I wash my hands now, ok?" I let her go to town with the soap; she washed up to her elbows twice. We went and danced and then called Daddy who was of course, super excited for her too. Awesome!
This was about 10:45. Between then and nap time at 2, she would sit on the potty about every 15 minutes (on her own requests) and almost every time, she would use the potty a little bit, wipe, flush and wash her hands. She wanted to dance, clap and yell "Yea Lily" after each time. She loved it when Mia would clap for her too. She had one minor accident when she didn't make it to the potty in time, but we just cleaned up and put on new panties. She wore a diaper at nap time but then we put her panties on again after her nap. This time she waited about 30 minutes between each trip, but she didn't have as much to drink in the afternoon. In fact, I gave her apple juice this morning to encourage the need to use the potty.
My mom came over to stay at the house today while the girls napped so I could run to the store. Taking two kids when it is pouring rain is not fun, so I really appreciated this. I bought Lily a princess balloon and some colorful cupcakes to celebrate the big day. That made her really excited too; she loves surprises like this.
I will say that she never had to poop today. I'm hoping that doesn't happen in the middle of the night, but I'm not sure how she'll feel about pooping in the potty. Hopefully it won't be a big deal, but we'll see. Overall, I think this has been a good first day of potty training! We'll see how tomorrow goes!
One more side note...remember how I said Lily loves washing her hands and she loves all things purple? She literally used up three quarters of the new bottle of soap today. I'm on the lookout for more coupons!
1 comment:
It takes all of my patience to deal with the washing of hands!!! We also have the kandoo soap and Evynne really likes it (although not as much as Lily I don't think). She really just likes all kinds of soap and playing in the water. I bought special "pull-ups flushable wipes" that have princesses on the container for a special thing when Evynne poos on the potty. We are still getting adjusted to that, but the wipes are a huge motivator. And much like Lily, she would use the whole container in one trip if I'd let her! I hope it continues to go well for y'all!
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