Day One of Potty Boot Camp

Parental Advisory: Pee Pee and Poo Poo story

But first, just in case you just want to see some cute photos instead of reading of our bodily functions (hers not mine!) here they are. These are from a day when we were playing on the slide with Daddy. There are two more at the end. :-)

"Pockets!"

We survived Day One of Potty Boot Camp!  I have Madison for four days and we are attempting to 'move on down the track' of the Potty Train one day at a time and see how it goes.  Up till now we have just been taking it easy and taking her to the potty occasionally.  I thought since I had some time with just her and I together it wouldn't hurt to try the 'run naked wild and free' method and see how that worked.

It wasn't working at first, while she loved being naked, she wasn't interested in sitting on any of the potties I had strewn all over the house. 

So, I did something I told myself I wouldn't do, I tried rewarding her with something sweet. (kinda like my desire to not have a pacifier in the house EVER...Hey you do what you gotta do) 

I told myself I didn't want to reward with food/candy because I had enough emotional connection to food and sweets in particular, I didn't want to start something unnecessarily.  I decided it would be okay to try it as I had been using stickers but they lost their novelty pretty quickly.  I found some toddler fruit snacks that I thought might be just motivating enough. Sweet, but not chocolate, gummy but easy to chew.

BINGO...She was naked for 6 hours and no PEE PEE anywhere but in the potty (except for panties while we were in the high chair (I wasn't in a high chair!)  She would run and say "Potty" and then "hurry hurry" and "help" and she would run to her potty and sit and then say "push" and then "candy".  I told her "you can have one if you pee pee." She did it every time.  We would get up and and do a happy dance and high five and then off to the 'toilet' to flush and wipe and wash hands (in the sink not the toilet!). We did a lot of signing of "proud", her new sign and saying "pwoud", very cute.

She usually gets two crackers/two cookies at a time for a snack and so she said "two" and I said "you can have two if you go poo poo."  She pushed and tried every time. No luck on the number 2. She had already Poo Poo'd in the morning before we got started.  I knew I had one more shot at the second Poo Poo of the day but it was getting late and I was beginning to wonder. 

It was time for jammy jams and a book so I went to get them and I heard her running from me. I waited behind the door hiding, (our routine) and when I peeked around the corner here she came running yelling "POOP! POOP!"  Before I could say "Hurry to the potty!", I saw that it was too late. She had plopped out two little poo poos along the way. It was easy to see she was upset and I scooped her up and took her to the big potty in case she wasn't finished.  We got all cleaned up and settled in for the night.  I was so proud of her (and me) it was a hard day but we did a lot of laughing and high fives and dancing.  I am not rushing her, just giving her the opportunity to try it.

PS

You should have seen the look on Roxy's face when the poo poo incident happened. It was like she was saying "HEY, I don't get away with THAT!" Fair is Fair, I think Madison says the same thing when she looks out the window and sees Roxy poo pooing on the lawn! That part was HILARIOUS actually.  

Speaking of HILARIOUS...Rick came home from training in LA and went to Hooters and brought this shirt back for Madison. I thought it was particularly appropriate for this post.