Monday, February 4, 2013

Potty Training

On April 2, 2012  I started potty training my daughter.  (Now that isn't completely accurate.  We've been practicing sitting on the potty and talking about the potty for months.)  That day we had a poop fiasco.  I'll spare you the details but my daughter was traumatized and I was happy to let her go back to diapers for a while.

Fast forward to June 30th.  Sweet Pea walked into the bathroom and announced that she wanted to use the potty.  I dropped everything for the day and we started potty training.  Within a couple of hours I had a reward system in place and she was doing spectacularly well.  Every time she tinkled she got 2 rocks.  Every time she pooped she got 11. (No rhyme to the number of rocks it's just what came out when I was talking to her.)  She immediately began earning rewards: a new box of crayons, a bowl of popcorn all for herself, etc.  Her main goal was to get her very own tricycle.  My goal was to keep her motivated long enough to build a habit.  This was perfect.  She didn't want to miss any opportunity to score rocks for the jar.  Pooping was the most exciting because it paid off with the biggest rewards.


She was victorious and has been almost completely accident free ever since that fateful day in June.  And yes, she earned her tricycle about 20 days later.

2 comments:

  1. Wahoo! What a great accomplishment and milestone to finally surpass. Looks like she is proud of herself as well. :)

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  2. You are a genius, dear. I have never seen this so well done, at least by me. I remember how thrilled she was to get the rocks to the top of the bottle... I was there!
    Love that you are getting caught up on your last year's history. Good for you. I still have to write up the trip we took to Alaska in 1965, September it was.

    Love,
    Mom

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