Potty Training 5.5 - 6.5

Day 5 (after nap):

Layla surprisingly didn't poop during nap today...this might not be pretty. She also didn't take a nap...so my day is ruined. She was up out of her crib at about 3:00 and I was expecting a loooooong afternoon.

Right before I got L out of bed, we had a visitor dropped off for the evening. Layla's friend, Landon came over to play for a few hours and they had so much fun! I thought this would mean that Layla would forget all about potty training...but it turns out Landon might just be our lucky charm!

After 15 minutes of drinking juice and snack time, L went up to both her potties (in playroom) an started doing "the dance". I took the undies off, she sat right down and a few seconds later grunted and peed! Not just a few tinkles...this was the real deal!!

She jumped right up (before I had a chance to wipe her...sick!) and started jumping up and down screaming "mommy mommy mommy!!!" "pee pee!!" and pointing. I have never been so happy/proud in all my life. Having your kid pee in the potty by themselves for the first time is like winning the lottery. Landon was also VERY impressed!

About 20 minutes later, the kids were playing on the couch and Layla all of a sudden jumped down and ran into the kitchen. She was looking for her potty which I had moved into the living room. I called to her "it's in HEREEEEEEE" and she came running and tried to sit on it with her underwear on. I quickly pulled them down and she sat right there and peed again!

I was so busy with both kids that I completely lost count of how many successes we had with L. She was a peeing machine last night! I couldn't believe it...every time I turned around she was running over to her potty! She did have one accident in the kitchen but things were a little chaotic (I was making dinner and the kids where chasing the dogs around) so I think she just lost focus for a bit.

Day 6 (morning):

We have been gone most of today. We went to Toys R Us to pick up L's new play kitchen, ate sushi for lunch (3 bowls of miso soup for L) and ran by the Post Office. Layla wore undies while we were all getting ready to leave but didn't pee on the potty or have an accident before we left. She was in a diaper the whole time we were gone and bounced around whining a few times...I explained that it was OK to go in her diaper and we did have a couple of wet ones.

I'm glad that she's still showing us signs when she's in a diaper. I'm just not ready to battle the war that will be a public restroom. I want to have a solid good week at home training (with very little accidents) before we try in public.

So the secret to all this success? I mentioned it earlier but I'm 100% sure having Layla help us "potty train" her baby is what made it click for her. I'm so glad we came up with that idea...it is genius really. We only had the baby "go" on the potty 2 times and have 1 "accident" yesterday and 1 of each today. Layla is so into it that she hugs and kisses her baby ALL over when she goes in the potty, and then tells the baby (nicely) "no no potty floor" when she has an accident. I can't believe how something so silly and simple could make such an impact on this.

My suggestion to all my Mommy friends reading my blogs...use a baby to help (even for boys!). Just get a cheap baby at Target if you don't already have one and use your bulb sucker thing from the hospital for the "pee". If I could turn back time (now I will have Cher stuck in my head ALL day), I would have had L train her baby for a few days before we started on her. Maybe she wouldn't have been so frustrated with sitting on the potty at first and had some earlier success.

I think this is the last of my daily potty training blogs. I'm sure I'll have plenty more stories to share along the way but Bryan and I are very comfortable now with Layla's potty schedule and her new found ability to pee on the potty. ;o)

In closure to all this, let me just say that this has been a very challenging week. We tested our patience, ability to parent, humor and above all, our marriage. LOL. Seriously, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy...and I think we had it easy in relation to some people's stories. I'm glad that so many people got a kick out of these blogs. And for those of you that have yet to potty train your kids...please write things down so I can read them and laugh at your misery. ;o)