Monday, February 7, 2011

Could her timing be any worse?

Just the other day Pete and I were discussing when to potty train Charlotte. It is something I pretty much dread with each child. I usually use the sort of potty training boot camp approach. We start at the beginning of a week when we have little to nothing planned. I stock up on juice and m&m's and stickers and make a sticker chart. We start with pants checks every couple of minutes, gradually waiting longer between each check. A dry pants gets a sticker. A dry pants and potty in the potty chair gets 2 stickers. A dry pants, potty and poopy in the potty chair gets 3 stickers. We do this for a few days to a week, increasing the time in between pants checks until we're only checking a few times a day. Usually after 5ish days they are going on their own. We keep giving stickers for about two-three weeks. By then the sticker chart is usually full and then they get a prize that was in sight but out of reach for the whole training period (a flashlight, a new baby doll dress or something like that) That's just what has worked for us several times now. And after trying with 3 of our kids right at age 2 (and having it seem to work and then not) we've also decided that what is best for our family is to wait until they are about 33 months old. So after discussing how nice it would be to have Charlotte out of diapers before we get our new son home, we decided to just wait until near summer's end right before she turns 3.

I wasn't planning on this happening- Charlotte came upstairs a little while ago and said she needed to go potty on her toilet. Alright then, let's go. She sat, I read the potty book, and she did nothing. Then she freaked when I tried to put a diaper back on her. So she's wearing underwear. Yikes! Since then she has told us 3 times that she needs to go potty, but so far, nothing. Hopefully soon she'll do something! I guess I need to call my mom and see if she's up for potty training while I'm gone!!

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