Madison is on the Potty Train!

I contemplated whether or not to post this in fear of jinxing myself, but heck I then decided I don't believe if jinxes!

I have been putting Madison on the potty for a while now, just for fun, while waiting for a bath to fill, or while mommy went potty or just to read a short book now and then. There have been a few times when she would be playing and take off crawling to the bathroom and stop and look at me and then sign "potty". I would say "You want to sit on your potty" and she would nod "yes" and we would sit on the potty and read. Very cute.

A week ago, I got a little more serious about it which simply entailed, doing it regularly twice a day without the diaper and while reading our Baby Signs Potty Train book. (I haven't introduced the train whistle as part of our routine as she hates it). I took a potty over to Mom's so they could practice too and took the Train book so that would be familiar. It has the signs to practice: Potty, More, All Done, Wash, Good Job (her good job is so HILARIOUS).

I am so excited to say that Saturday Madison not only sat there contently "reading" her new Elmo Potty book with sound buttons and laughing but she then looked up at me, signed "potty" and I looked in and she was GOING POTTY! (#1). We celebrated and hollared for Daddy and we all did a dance. This happened twice that day. We were so excited. I have to admit that doing this in the cold months isn't going to be easy! Layers aren't the best for getting undressed in a hurry and since she isn't walking dresses are out of the question right now!

Now I am not naive enought to think that she is on her way to being potty trained, but I am just so excited that she got the signs down, sat there long enough to be successful (less than three minutes) and wasn't afraid of the toilet flushing or upset in any way and has even suggested to use the potty on her own a few times. Very cool!

Speaking of signing, we went to Sign Playgroup on Friday morning, as I had the day off and it happened to be the first Friday of the month when they meet. I was so excited to go to the park and secretly hoped Madison would perform all her 130+ signs (well not ALL of them but come on SOME would be nice so I wouldn't feel like people thought I was making this stuff up! It is hard for even me to believe sometimes!) Beth introduced Madison as her "signing superstar" and I just beamed. In true form, Madison signed ONE word...SWING...and that's it! I was bummed. We had a great time anyway and Beth reassured me that happens and she didn't doubt me for a minute! :-) She said for her to stop signing for a bit when she learned to walk, it just happens developmentally.

It made me think of when I was a little girl. My Uncle tells stories about when I was really little and I would get around people other than Mom and I would hide between her legs or sit quietly on the couch and not say ONE WORD the whole time we would visiting. Now Madison really isn't shy but that day I thought, signing is her way of 'talking' and she just didn't feel like 'saying' anything and that is okay!

One of the cute things she does is when we are shopping and people see her and say nice things to her, she signs "Thank You" and everyone always thinks she is blowing them kisses and they just think it is the cutest thing! :-) Sometimes I tell them what she is saying and sometimes I just let them enjoy the baby air kisses.