heart to heart blog

The statement I heard from a  lot of moms, “one day your child will wake up & decide that she wants to pee on the potty” always made me nervous. Well PP, who will be turning 3 in 3 months, had yet to express any interest in going peepee on the potty. So, I decided to take the bull by the horns & dedicate a weekend that we were not going anywhere to do “potty training boot camp.”

Here was my preparation for the potty training boot camp:

–A trip to Becker’s to purchase a reward system chart as well as a potty training chart (You can certainly make these but I’m not crafty so I was happy to be able to buy them)

–Washing the cutest little underwear: Tinkerbell & Dora so PP could have some underwear options

–A big reveal of the reward chart as well as the announcement to say “bye bye” to baby diapers

–Gathering of rewards: for every 3 stars, you get a prize that you can pick out of a bowl (chocolate works wonders for my kid so basically I stocked up on Hershey Kisses & M&Ms)

Here’s how it all went down:

Day one of boot camp:
–Woke up with the official ceremony of throwing out PP’s  last diaper & putting on the big girl underpants (PP got to pick from Dora & Tinkerbell. In case you were wondering, she picked Dora)

–Re-explanation of the reward system: on day one, she loved working for her stars (warning on this: kids totally dig the reward system/stars the first two days, by day three their interest in it wanes but hopefully the motivation is all they needed to get started).

–Constant asking, “Do you have to go to the potty?” Then I started to put her on every 30 minutes

By 11:00am, no accidents. I think at this point, I started getting cocky, thinking that this is easy- PP has already figured this out! I spoke too soon. After 3 pairs of Dora & 3 pairs of Tinkerbell underwear, I felt a little defeated but still ready for day two.

Day two of boot camp:
–Accidents started even earlier in the day. Yikes!! I think Day 2 was harder since I thought PP would have gotten the hang of going on the potty.

–Still digging the stickers as a reward but not as much as day one

Day three of boot camp:
–PP was home with her Dad – he was the enforcer on day 3

–Apparently she only had one accident all day! Interesting, huh? (he said it was because I trained her so well the previous two days)

So far, PP has done a really good job at potty training. She has conquered going number 1 & 2 on the potty which is a big accomplishment. I am able to take her out sans diapers (even though I definitely bring a pair of clothes & underwear just in case). I do get anxious taking her out in public without the diaper but I have to get over it. I really dreaded the whole potty training thing (and talked to many moms on their tried & true tactics) so I am happy to report that PP was pretty easy to train (thank goodness!!).