Just a few more words on Emily’s potty training. I couldn’t be more pleased with Emily’s progress. We tried to go full action potty training and after day three and a lot of crying everytime she sat on the potty, we took a break. I just didn’t want her to hate the potty and she definately wasn’t enjoying the process.

Our new approach was to remind her that when she needed to go she needed to tell Mommy or Daddy. And then when it looked like she was trying to communicate something we would ask if she needed to go potty. This approach only produced 1-2 successful trips to the potty each day.

Then the day before yesterday we made four successful trips and no diaper changes after her nap. Yesterday followed with three successes. I guess one trick to potty training is figuring out what is the best reward motivator. Emily asked to watch Diego as her reward yesterday. I told her that she could watch one Diego episode as a reward, but couldn’t watch another Diego as a reward until she ‘poopied in the potty’. After that successful trip to the potty she always asked to watch Diego and I would repeat the rewards system. She surprised me today, while she was on the potty I went to fetch a fresh dry diaper and she poopied in the potty. She was very calm about it like she did it every day. I was so proud of her! We postponed her nap and she watched her Diego episode to celebrate.

When I was reading about the training process, I found several references to the fact that I would be learning about how Emily learns and deals with situations. So what I have learned about Emily so far is: she likes to be in control, she likes a little privacy at times when doing things for herself (espcially the first time), she learns quick, and her wanting to do something is the best motivator for her.

Just a few brief words, and no pictures, about potty training for Emily. After putting it off as long as I could, we are starting Emily down the road of growing up. She has been showing signs of being ready for a while and with the arrival of her sister, the holidays, and her birthday it just didn’t seem like the time. Emily has her big girl potty now, we have talked about it, I have read suggestions, and tonight we had our first success. We celebrated with a cookie and a phone call to Daddy in which she announced that she ‘pee-pee in potty’. For her that is a pretty big sentence and it was the most clear her words are. I think she was excited.

I’m aware that tonight’s success is just the beginning of a new level of control and independence for Emily. I also know that she isn’t going to master this for a while, but I’m so pleased that we had such a great success tonight. I’m really proud of our big girl!