Here we are after a few months of hiatus. We now have 2 little potties, one for each of them. Both of the girls have been taking their diapers off (again!) in their cribs when they wake up. It has gotten so bad, that when Jackson goes in to see them he will come report to me whether or not they took their diapers off before I go to get them. At least that gives me a chance to be calm when I go in instead of blowing up at them. It's a real problem either way...
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| A Tale of Two Potties... |
Hailey has shown the most interest in "trying" again during this past week. She has gone on her potty twice (number 1, then number 2). Melanie has sat on hers, but wouldn't even let me take off her pants or diaper. It was more of a seat for her, until today!!! They keep switching roles. Today Hailey wants nothing to do with the bathroom, but I noticed Melanie was "pushing", so I asked her if she wanted to go sit on her potty and get a treat if she went poop in it. To my surprise, she jumped at that idea! So much surprise, I actually thought she was Hailey for a minute... don't judge... it happens! I rushed her into the bathroom, yelling for Jackson to grab her a treat (A visual reward is helpful for an almost 2 year old that hasn't quite developed a fantastic imagination.), and let her choose which potty she wanted to use. She of course choose the blue one that she claimed a few weeks ago as her seat. We were in luck! She hadn't gone in her diaper yet. I quickly threw a small layer of toilet paper in the potty because I hadn't yet set up the baggie in her potty. (See Part 1 of a Billion to see what on earth I'm talking about. Baggie, what??) She sat there for a while trying to push. I read a couple books to her (She LOVED "I'm a Hungry Dinosaur" Jackson did too. He kept trying to lick the page.) and kept reminding her to push. After a few minutes she wanted to check her progress, so I let her stand up. We were pleasantly surprised to see a little bit of poop in her potty! We cheered and celebrated. We moved the poop and toilet paper layer (which worked pretty well!) into the toilet and let her flush. She ate her treat that Jackson picked out for her, and I put a pull-up on her instead of another diaper. She seemed pretty satisfied with herself (and the praise we gave her) and went to play. I reminded her to tell me when she needed to go potty again. I knew she'd need to go again later because it was just a little bit of poop after all!
About 10 minutes later I saw her concentrating with wide eyes at nothing in particular, so I jumped up and reminded her to go in the potty. She was eager to run to the bathroom again. With another layer of toilet paper down in the bottom of the cup, she sad down for another try. I noticed her pull-up was freshly wet, so that may have been the reason for concentration. (Hopefully?? That would mean she's recognizing when she needs to go/is going) She didn't go again in the potty, but while she was trying Hailey walked in with a stinky diaper... sigh... Two steps forward, one step back. We'll get there! At least they have both now experienced the rewards (ahem... bribes) of going in the potty instead of their diapers.
Wish me luck! Deep breaths... I'm keeping an eye out for concentrating toddlers today.
