Tales of potty training.

I'll try to keep this simple and short - I could write a novel on how frustrating potty training has been, but I'll spare you. =) This was my facebook status the first day I started...

Candace Frank Duce Day one, hour 4 of potty training Kristie - completely unsuccessful and miserable. I already want to quit. Now, I know this was only 4 hours into it, but the book I was using was "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" and usually it takes a mere few hours to get success! Yikes, not for Kristie Duce. I did EVERYTHING by the book and it was absolutely not working. Using a doll that goes peepees to show Kristie how to do it, having Kristie "train" the doll, showing how the doll gets a reward (candy) for going in the potty, having Kristie ditch diapers and wear underwear around the hosue, giving her tooons of drinks and salty snacks to give her lots of chances to go, having her sit every FIFTEEN MINUTES, recording when she went, doing dry pants checks every 5 minutes...I mean, we did it ALL. It was just wet underwear after wet underwear all day long. And when they wet themselves, they're supposed to "practice" running to the potty, pulling their pants down, sitting down, standing right back up, and going to another place in the house and running back to the potty...TEN times...we only got to 5 times with a lot of tears. It was anything but pleasant.

After a week straight of all wet underwear, I was about ready to give up and put it on hold for another month or so. (She literally would wet herself just minutes after sitting down on the potty, so it was the most frustrating thing on the planet.) Then she went finally went peepees in the potty. So we kept trying. And since then it's been a good 5 or 6 times in the last couple weeks. Not very often and just here & there. Last night she went twice in a row so she's showing some progress!

So here's the pros - through that program you're supposed to let them do everything themselves. So she's a pro at putting on and taking off her underwear by herself. (Before this she had no idea what underwear was and how to dress herself.) And through all this we've learned her behaviors with having to go. Before she showed absolutely no signs of having to go and we had no choice but to sit her down constantly in hopes that she'd happen to go. But as of this week, she started doing the potty dance! Woooooo. So now we can just watch her and tell her she needs to sit when she starts marching and hopping around. (It's kinda cute.) So we're getting somewhere. I keep praying that she'll understand and just get it and go. But I need to be praying for patience and understanding. She'll get there. =)

The first picture and the one above was from the week after we started potty training and we were just exhausted and trying to stay sane at home. So Kristie and I made fruit loops necklaces that put a smile on our faces for awhile. =) The picture above reminds me of how Kristie just looooves "Baby Joel." I don't think she completely grasps that the baby inside mommy's tummy is going to come out and stay with us some day, but she sure talks about him and loves him. She loves to give him kisses and hugs and it's just the sweetest thing ever. =)