Toilet Training: Day #4

Toilet Training is continuing. Still no poop but she's got everything else accomplished. She pees in the potty but poops in the pants. I believe she's relishing the idea of having our complete attention focused on her.

While KC was at school we drove down to Home Depot and stood all the Japanese Weeping Cherry trees in a row. We deliberated the merits of each one and then REmeasured the pot to see if it could fit through Tif's car window.


It barely fit! I sat in the backseat with the pot in my lap propping it so it would stay in one position and not snap off the top that was sticking out through the window.


Then we had to decide on the best spot.


We were relieved that the branches remained in tact after that precarious ride home. (Can you tell Art loves trees? If he could he'd have planted a mango tree there.)


We picked up KC from her school and she was more than happy to help.


The tree is planted. Art's back hurts from all the digging. Got to see more friends who stopped by and KC is in bed tonight keeping her dry bottom record in tact. Her parents e-mailed from Bermuda saying they'd gone to see a pink sand beach. Really? KC has asked them for a yellow hat and by golly, I'll bet they're going crazy trying to find her one after the effort she has put in this week!

Toilet Training: Day #3

Is it really only the third day? I've told Art that I don't want to go out and do anything while we're in the toilet training mode. I need to be near the potty until KC is really comfortable with the idea. After all, she's been perfectly pleased with her diaper for three years and needs to see for herself that it's really a great idea to use this alternative method.

This means we're not really free to do much of anything else. I really don't mind. I consider this a priviledge and it's a lovely bonding time to share the exhilaration of her excitement and proud smiles and squeals.

She woke up this morning with a wet diaper but she still insisted she needed to go before she went to school. She did! Yae! A sticker and mini Oreo!


The teacher discretely asked me how it was going. I said, "Making progress."


Now I see what Tif's life is like. We had two hours while KC was at school to go to the grocery store and stop at Home Depot to look at their trees to replace our fallen Horse Chestnut tree. We saw these ornamental cherry trees. One of our friends mentioned a Japanese Weeping Cherry tree. Sounded like a good idea. However, we're trying to figure out how we're going to bring it home with Tif's small car. I wish we had our van. Ah well... we'll see.


Then we picked up KC who told us that she had to go while she was in school. Oh wow! "Good girl," we told her.

"No, I poopied in my diaper." Her voice was somber. "That's OK," she brightened. "We all make mistakes. It's OK to make mistakes."

And how true is that?

Never the less, the rest of the day went very well. She stayed dry the entire time and we did not have to do any laundry tonight. The funny thing is I told her I would put a star next to her sticker to show that she remembered to go without my telling her. Now, if I remind her, she never has to go, but 5 minutes later she'll say, "I have to go, Grandma." And she goes. I really think she's got all the angles figured out.


This afternoon, a very good friend of ours surprised us with a visit. It was so nice to see Bill since we haven't been able to go out to visit anybody these past three days.

Day #2 Potty Training Update

I'm pretty tuckered out.

However, I'm quite pleased with the progress we made today.

Yesterday we had eight big girl underwear in the wash; this evening, just one.

The breakthrough for today was she told us herself the last three times that she needed to go and then produced.

Tonight, I put her to bed and she came down ten minutes later to say she needed to go. I was too lazy to take her downstairs so I used the upstairs grown-up toilet with the child's potty attachment. And by golly! She went!

OK... still no poopie, but she tried.

I had to give her the mini Oreo reward.

Have you any idea just how hard it is to brush Oreo cookies off a child's molars? I asked her if she wouldn't like to have the reward tomorrow morning instead, as Grandpa suggested.

Riiiight.... I didn't think so. (Bird in hand is worth more than the possibility that the cookies might disappear tomorrow. Hmmm... I shouldn't have told her that I used to like Oreos, too.)

Toilet Training: The Third Time, Day #1

After toilet training my second born which actually went a lot easier than my first, I was happy to have that task over with. Maybe that's why we only had two children.


Tif has been having a miserable time trying to teach KC to use the potty. Then someone told her that grandmothers are good for that. Siiiighhhh!

Luckily KC is quite verbal and understands a lot... sometimes too much. She also has her own opinion on how the world should be ordered and doesn't care what her peers are doing. (This will be great when she's a teenager.) Therefore, telling her that her friends are using the potty does not impress her one iota. I think she wondered why they gave up such a convenient, portable option.

I talked to her yesterday about using the potty and told her we would be helping her learn how. I asked her what she would like to have as a reward. She said, "Cookies!" I was relieved since she hasn't been given candy yet. She is also not given juice since the pediatrician said it has too much sugar.

However, Tif and Ed gave me permission to use whatever I needed. KC said she wanted orange juice and Juicy Juice. So we bought several packs of them.

This morning I gave her the juice. She took several sips of both and decided, "Noooo. I don't like them."

"What?" We bought two packs of those box drinks! I needed her to drink a LOT of liquids.

She wanted chocolate milk or water. Tif dilutes the chocolate milk with plain milk. She gets one glass of the mixture a day. I told KC she could have as much as she wanted so long as she used the potty. I also set up a sticker reward system for her.

It's been a challenging day! I've got eight big girl underwear in the wash tonight. However, she did use the potty seven times and was euphoric! She was jumping up and down, twirling about the room chanting, "I'm proud of myself. I want to tell Mommy and Daddy."

She went to bed as pleased as can be. We're thrilled, too. I'm hoping we can keep the progress going tomorrow. By this evening she told us two times that she needed to use the potty. I felt like she'd gotten a doctorate.

Hey! Maybe we should have had a third child...