Friday, January 16, 2009

Potty Time

I am so proud of my little toots. It has been a week, and Ella has had no accidents. A few months ago, I attempted to begin potty training, and I failed miserably. I made some mistakes, and maybe (if you haven't already been through this process) if I share them, you won't make those same mistakes.
First: I started when I thought Ella should be ready.
Second: I had Ella go sit on the potty according to the schedule I thought was appropriate.
And Finally: I started this process when I was in the middle of my first trimester of my pregnancy.
With the wisdom that Landon gained from his father, he told me that "when you train a horse, sometimes things just don't work out. You then have to take some time off, and when you resume your training (when she's ready), the horse will remember what you taught them the first time, and progress without any trouble." Now, I'm not saying that my daughter is a horse, but the training theory seemed to be correct. For the months following the miserable failure, I would periodically ask Ella if she would like to go potty on her potty. For months the answer was no, but one day (a week ago), she agreed and was excited to put her big girl panties on. Since then, she has had no accidents. She even wakes up dry in the morning half the time, and wakes up from her naps dry every day. It's been fun to be excited with her. Now at the end of the day, she gets two coins for every "wet" she does in the potty and five coins for every "poopy." She then sits down and counts her coins as she puts them in her piggy bank (actually its a snail). She loves it when she gets "Lots and Lots of moneys."
Ella's getting to be such a big girl, and I am loving the thrill of being a part of her growth!

9 comments:

Angela said...

That is so exciting maybe she needs to talk to Ashton:) He still has yet to decide to go in the Big Boy Potty I am hoping some time soon though

LoraAnn said...

Congrats! I made a lot of the same mistakes with Caleb and so this time around I am waiting for Kira to initiate potty herself. I do hope it will be before the next one comes though. What a big accomplishment!

Shalae said...

Congrats! That is so exciting! I am patiently waiting for my Ella to be ready for the toilet. . . yep, still waiting! That's great she did it too before the baby comes! One baby in diapers is enough!

Jana said...

I have to admit something, since the title had to do with potties I read the first part about you being proud of your "little toots" wrong. I was surprised you were admitting the fact until I realized you meant "toots" as in "tootsie" not like "toot your own horn" and you were talking about Ella. I had a pretty good laugh about it.

Anyways, I went through the exact same thing with Cali. One day a while after I had just about lost my mind and given up she got up and said she wanted to wear panties and was virtually accident free from then on. Tell Ella that I am proud of her.

Shellie said...

Thanks Jana, and I'm glad you got a giggle out of it.

Dave and Candace said...

Congrats to all of you! I can just see Ella being excited about all of her "monies." It will be so nice to only have to change one child's diaper when the baby comes . . . if only I could say the same thing!

Tory and Elizabeth said...

I have to admit I am totally jealous on two accounts.
1. You don't have to change ANY diaper for a few weeks and then will only have one person's diapers to change, sigh
2. That Ella gets money for making her own deposits of sorts in the potty. I wish life were still only that easy.

But after that CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Marcie said...

How funny! I loved this blog. I miss her! She is such a character.

Alison said...

NICE!!! This is awesome :-) I'm glad I've got a pass to Winter Quarters! Thanks. And way to go on the potty training. We used a garden hose at the Parmenter house to take care of business.