Potty party

We've been having a potty party over here the last few days. I finally decided to take on the challenge of potty training Emmy. I seriously have been dreading this task, and I had to gear myself up for it for like 3 weeks before we actually started.

I decided to start last Saturday. I figured that we'd start over Conference weekend so that Matt would be home to help with Zach for a couple of days and so that we wouldn't have to go to church. And we'd be home for a few days in a row. And I have a break between semesters of teaching.

Anyway, we decorated the bathroom with balloons and hearts and prizes and treats to make it really fun.

We got her a little tiara and magic wand to wear/hold while she sat on the potty. (I read that if they are scared, you can have something fun for them to hold while they go and tell them that the thing they're holding will help it not be scary.) We also got some dry erase markers for her to decorate the potty with.

We got lots of fun drinks so she'd have to go a lot. :)

And of course some fun undies.

When she woke up that morning, I told her it was "big girl day" and that there were lots of surprises for her in the bathroom. I had put away all the diapers the night before and showed her that the diapers were all gone and so she'd have to wear underwear. I told her that it was her job as a big girl to keep the underwear dry. And then every 20 minutes or so, I'd have her check and see if the underwear was still dry. And then she got lots of praise if it was. Then I'd ask if she was ready to go potty and then if she said no, I reminded her to let me know when she was ready to go potty.

She had 3 accidents before she actually went on the potty. And LOTS of praise and rewards when she finally went. The biggest hit was the Finding Nemo fruit snacks. She LOVES Nemo and LOVES fruit snacks, so she was really motivated to earn the fruit snacks.

Sometimes she would say she was ready to go potty when I'd remind her and other times she would say no. But by the end of the first day, she said she had to go potty and went! On Day 1 she had 4 accidents and 7 successes. Day 2 was a little stressful, and we were all a little frustrated. She had 3 accidents, and 5 successes, but several fits about going potty. But on Day 3, she stayed dry all day except for a little 1/2 accident where she started to go in her undies but then finished on the potty! My mom came over and brought her some potty presents too (undies, stickers for her potty chart, and some juice), which was fun! She loved telling Grandma that she was a big girl and knew how to go potty.

Finally today (on Day 6) she went #2. I think she was really scared and was holding it all in. (She'd save it for her "nighttime underwear" aka..a Pull-up...at night.) But she's done it multiple times today. I am so proud of her!

By the morning of Day 4 she had filled up her whole potty chart! (Also, I told her that when she went #2, we could go get some ice cream. She went at like 9 a.m. this morning and then promptly said, "Let's go get some ice cream! And of course no ice cream places are open at 9 a.m. so we had to go to Grandma's house to get some ice cream. Ha!)

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not done yet, but I think she has done really well. She has stayed dry for 2 days straight. She has said really funny things throughout the process like, "It's also fun to go potty in Mommy's bathroom" and "Does Grandma have a potty chart?" What a funny girl!

And this is totally unrelated, but we were making cookies the other day, and here she is watching them cook.  Then she told me that I couldn't eat any cookies because we had to save them for Daddy. Ha!