I had done nothing in the potty training department before that. I must've known it was crazy to think I could tackle that in one month. That's probably why I hadn't even attempted it before then. Intimidated. It seemed like such hard work. And it was for those few days that I really pushed it. Too much work! I was taking them into the bathroom every 20-30 minutes: pants off, diaper off, on the potty...wait...wait...wait. Meanwhile the other one was going in their pants. Diaper back on, pants back on. Repeat for other child (even if it was too late). We bought big boy underwear and big girl panties and wore them all day one day. They looked so cute and grown up! I've heard that you can just put those on them and suddenly the kids want to pee-pee in the potty. Our kids had no problem peeing in the big kid underwear and I didn't have the patience or the mental restraint to let them sit in them for long enough to get uncomfortable. How do people do that? Just let 'em dribble and soak through on the furniture and carpet until they've had enough? Yeah--no.
This is my vacation, I thought. I'm not going to ruin it with potty obsession, poop and pee all over our carpet, constant bathing, changing clothes and scrubbing floors. But I did introduce the concept. That's something.
So with my sanity and my vacation in mind, I just kind of gave up. Ethan was fighting it very hard, crying and saying, "Scared." So I am not going to force him on the potty and make it worse. You can lead a boy to the potty, but you can't make him go.
Emma did pee in the potty several times during our few days of hardcore training and she seemed excited about it. "O-KAY!!" she'd say as she sat there. The first time she ever peed in the potty, I screamed so suddenly that I scared her. She stopped the stream and smiled. I picked her up and hugged her, and she finished peeing in the floor. I didn't even care. I was so happy. And she was so proud of herself.
I bought peanut butter M&M's to sweeten the pot for Ethan, but he still says, "No pee-pee in the potty." After the bath is the best time for Emma, and while Emma is going, Ethan goes in the tub. He looks down and purposefully and defiantly goes in the tub. I ignore it, and I'm actually fine with it. At least he waits until Emma is out. And at least he is practicing a controlled pee-pee. I just pour on the celebration for Emma and give her a "potty candy" after she's done.
Potty candy really motivated Sugar Baby Emma even further. Now she asks, "Go pee-pee in the potty?" at least once a day. And I take her right away any time she says those words. She went three times today! I am so proud of my little big girl! Her favorite part (besides the candy) is playing with the toilet paper. She pulls the whole roll out or just rips tiny pieces off and drops them between her legs. "All done," she says. It won't be long and Skinny Bop will potty train herself.
She likes to follow me to the potty too, and the other day after I was finished, she pulled the toilet paper and tore it off for me. She poked the paper down into the toilet, puckered her lips and said, "Good job."
One of my favorite "funny" pictures of Emma. There is such a matter of fact look, a kind of "of course I use the potty, and this toilet paper thing is a breeze".
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