Well here we go! Our little one has finally shown an interest in potty training again.
We bought the potty a while ago and it’s been sitting strategically in the bathroom ever since but it is yet to earn its keep.
We also have one of those plastic toilet cover thingy’s and a step but the big toilet is all a bit tall and intimidating for her so that hasn’t worked yet either.
We started the potty training ages ago with hand signals and all sorts of nonverbal cues but we really didn’t follow up on it properly and we missed a few important cues which made her frustrated so in the end we thought we’d drop it for a while.
We continued to talk to her about it, explain what the potty is for and we have an open door bathroom policy so she can see what goes on in there.
We’ve also been trying to encourage her with times of no nappy during the day. By times of no nappy I mean about 10 minutes after I change a soiled nappy or immediately before or after a bath.
I don’t really want to leave it any longer than that as her confidence is just starting to grow again but more importantly because we have a lot of carpet! She even went shopping with mum to buy special “grown up undies” that she can wear when she doesn’t have a nappy on.
Well yesterday while I was using the big potty she walked into the bathroom, pointed at her little potty and said,”Poo”.
“Yes, that’s where you do a poo” I replied. “Nice work. Do you want to do a poo?”
“Nononononononoooo….!” she yells running off, and that was that.
Not much you might say but at least I now know that she knows what the potty is, what it is for, and that whether or not she needs to use it is nobody’s’ business but hers. A good start.
This morning while I was using the bathroom she came in and sat down next to me on the potty.
“Hooray !” I cry. “That’s where you do wees and poos “.
“Yes” she says
“Do you want to try using it with your pants off ?” I ask.
“No”.
“OK then”.
We both sat there for a while and then she got up, turned around to look at the empty potty and then walked away. Now we might be getting somewhere.
As we were getting her changed and into her pajamas tonight before bed she wriggled and escaped to dash naked around the living room table and straight into the bathroom to look her potty up and down.
She walked around it calculating the correct trajectory and attempted to squat a few times before she finally felt bare bum touch the cool plastic.
“Ahh…”she sighs. “Poo”.
“Yes” we reply.”Poo”.
She sat there quite comfortably for a little while before she got up, dabbed at her bum with the toilet paper we had given her and dropped it back into the empty potty. She then picked up the potty and while holding it at arm’s length she pushed it toward her Mums’ face with a smile that could only have said…
” Your lucky that this time I am only pretending”.
It looks as though our potty training has begun…