#$*&@^$ Potty Training!!!!

I have to preface this by saying I'm a mommy and like all other mommies, I'm about to talk about my child's bathroom habits. It's gross and boring if you're not a parent or grandparent. But since we brought home baby #1, pee and poop are what makes the world go 'round. So you can read on and accept this fact of our lives, or just skip this entry.

Ella's shown signs of wanting to be potty trained since she was 18 months old. But we had a baby on the way and all the experts say that's a bad time to start anything new. So we waited. Alex was born in May... Ella turned 2 in August... and we started trying to sit on the potty. It was actually fun for her. She was a big girl!

She took to it like a champ. We bought a little potty chair, but she wasn't a fan. Instead, she found an ELMO potty seat insert for the toilet. It was love at first sit. (We bought two, upstairs and downstairs) She peed from the very first time she sat on the potty and pooped soon after. She goes every day before her nap, at bedtime, she begs to go at Target, Costco, any public bathrooms are a huge hit. (she likes the echo and loves to yell that she's "making pee pee in the big girl potty" so anyone 3 aisles away can hear.) She even keeps her diaper dry during her naps most days. But she still pees and poops in her diaper. At least 2-3 times every day.

I'm trying to be patient and let her do this in her own time. But I also think we have to schedule this to make it work, and anything that's scheduled seems to become something she wants to resist. Mainly because she's a busy girl with her own agenda. Whether she's coloring, watching a movie, playing in her kitchen or chasing the dogs, she just doesn't want to stop what she's doing and go potty!

We've decided maybe the diapers and Pull-ups are just too much of a crutch for her.(and for us) So tonight, we put on the big girl panties and went to the potty every 30 minutes. She peed every time and never got the panties wet. Maybe we'll stick with this for a few days, spend a lot of time at home going potty, and see if we can make "cold turkey" potty training work as it has for everything else in her life.

She did it when we got rid of the "binky." She did it when we gave up bottles for sippee cups. She did it when we switched to the big girl bed and she's never looked back. Maybe this is what we should have tried months ago!?

All I know is she turns three in August, and we're enrolling for preschool. I've gotta get her potty trained before then!