Potty Training Part 2

Some of you may remember that when Tom was on his last trip to the UAE in July of last year, I attempted the "Kamikaze" method of potty training. It was exhausting and Lj was only about 20 months old. She took to it fairly well, but not enough to continue. (I discovered later that for that method to work the child has to drink about a cup of liquid and hour and there was NO WAY Layla was or would consume that much!)

We decided to try again since our return date is totally up in the air and I'd rather not have two kids in diapers.

So this time around we just went cold turkey (except for her long sleeping nap in the afternoon and nighttimes) and put Tom in charge and it has gone like a charm. Several people have told us she is ready and it was just a matter of finding a time between guests and illness to pull the trigger.

Today was a big day because she actually POOPED in the potty! Twice! She sobbed and sobbed both times and kept standing up and trying to walk away and then turned around again to try again and it was the most pathetic, sad thing you've ever witnessed in a bathroom. I can't BELIEVE she was making herself do it! I kept saying that she could try again later, it was okay, blah blah blah, but she kept going back She was shuffling around with her panties around her ankels the whole time which made it even more funny/pathetic. Tom was gone or he would have been there like he had been for the first successful attempt. She was just sobbing for daddy and wanted me to hold her has she sat on the potty and so on. My goodness.

We are TOTALLY bribing her and it works wonders. She had M+Ms at the superbowl party and loved them (first time) so we decided to use that and for poops she gets a lollipop! That is about as high on the food chain as you can get in her mind. Oh yea, I forgot to say that half the time she was sobbing on the toilet she was holding a little lollipop in her hand (=

She was so constipated that I am sure it hurt. She hadn't gone for two days because she didn't want to go in the potty and after pooping once her her panties she didn't want to do that again. (thank you very much for that!)

So anyway. We actually think she is consistant enough to be called 'potty trained' at this point. This is day 3. We can take her out and she'll go in the mall or restaurant toilets. I HIGHLY reccomend having a portable toilet seat to take with you. We have a padded one that we use at home sometimes (she played with it for a good 3 months) and I lug that around, but I know there are foldable ones as well for $9 from target on-line. Some folks say to just start with that and not bother with the little potty. I've got a foldable one coming so I'll let you folks overseas know what I think. A friend of mine swears by it - it folds into a gallon-sized zip lock bag.

Anyway, we are very happy parents at this point!! Oh, and Jill, thanks for all those panties.....we'd have been racing to the store in desperation because we weren't quite prepared for her to do this!