Monday, August 18, 2008

Getting Down To Business (Pun Intended)

I had an epiphany this morning. Up until now, we've been taking this potty training thing slow with Laura Anne. Mainly because she is only two and also, I didn't want her to get frustrated and decide not to use the potty at all. So we've been allowing Laura Anne to tell us when she needed to go and trying to keep things fun. But I realized this morning that we're not getting anywhere. She was doing really well until a recent phase where she didn't want to use the potty for a while. She's just starting to show interest again, but even now, she only has a successful trip to the potty an average of once a day.

My epiphany was this: I need to take charge. I know Laura Anne is smart enough to know what to do. She's known for awhile. So starting today, Monday, she will not be wearing diapers. At least, not during the day. When we first started potty training, I bought Laura Anne some princess undies. So for now, she will be wearing those around the house. Yes, I know I will have a few messes to clean up, but the concept is that she will learn that it's not comfortable to wet yourself, and also she'll learn better to distinguish when she has to go. Also, I spent 5 minutes on the internet this morning searching for potty training charts. I found one that's completely free and it comes with stickers. All I had to do was right click and print! It was as easy as that. Now we have a Hello Kitty potty chart on the bathroom wall. When Laura Anne goes in the potty, she gets to put a sticker on the chart. She loves it and it seems to encourage her enough! Today, she has already added 3 stickers to her chart. She did have one accident, too, but I'm confident that she'll learn fast.

So we're in this for good! At least, now I'm obligated to stick with it since I've written it for all the world to see!!

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