Potty Ponderings

It feels like just when my daughter accomplishes something it's time to move on to the next milestone.  She is growing up so fast and I know that every parent says that, but now that I am one, I totally understand.  

At my daughter's 18 month check up her pediatrician told me that it would be appropriate to start potty training her if she showed some of the signs of being ready.  After telling the doc about how she is very interested in what mommy does in the bathroom she suggested that we could start trying.  

I didn't want to push things, diapers are still okay, and for goodness sake she was only 18 months old.  Most people don't start until their children are at least two.  So, I decided to wait.  That was until what happened a couple of days ago.

My husband called me into the bathroom where I found my daughter sitting on the toilet (seat down) with a piece of tp in her hand making grunting sounds.  Then after she climbed off the toilet she went to flush the toilet.  My husband and I just looked at each other and we knew what the other was thinking before a word was spoken.  It's time!

So I went to Walmart and got a potty seat to put on the toilet along with a step stool to climb up onto the toilet.  I got stickers and found a potty reward chart online. I got some picture books about potty training at the library.  And finally, I got some training pants.  We were ready.

I explained to the Peanut that we were going to try to start using the big girl potty.  I gave her the full run down on how this was going to work and then the fun started.  

I found that she became very proficient at getting up onto the potty and sitting there, but there was no pee or poop.  That's okay right, she has to get used to sitting up there.  Then tonight we saw her take a step in the right direction.

My husband and I filled her full of fluids and right after dinner we took her to the potty.  The diaper came off and she climbed up onto the toilet seat and sat there.  After getting a little restless she climbed down, moved her step stool over to the sink and motioned to brush her teeth.  We got her the toothbrush and she started brushing, but as she was brushing she decided to pee too.  We quickly swooped her up and put her on the potty toothbrush and all and, yes, it happened.  She tinkled in the toilet!  It was just a few drops, but she did it!  My husband and I were so excited and she got pretty excited too.  We wiped, she got off the potty and flushed and my husband presented her with her reward, a sparkly princess sticker and that is when she peed all over the floor.

Accidents are going to happen.  We know that and we don't even care that she she did pee all over the floor.  What's more important is that she actually tinkled in the potty!