Potty Training!

OH! What a joyous and exciting time in a parent's life! The end of diapers is [possibly] near! 

**Fair warning: this post might be totally uninteresting/TMI for any non-parents out there ;)

We've been working on this wonderful endeavor for about 6 months at our house. We've had our successes and failures, ups and downs, good days, bad days, and ugly days. We've come a long way and still have a ways to go, but we're happy with our progress. Our potty training adventure began back in March. C was still a month away from her 2nd birthday so we were really just trying to see what would happen with little-to-no expectations. I first decided to try because I could almost always tell when she was trying to do... ummm.... a #2. I had also seen a Sesame Street potty seat at Target that I thought could help get her on board. I figured if I could catch her before the #2 actually happened and get her to do it on the potty, I'd be a happy mama.

So I bought the potty seat and she picked up on doing #2 on it almost right away. Woot! It took a few more months and the reward of cookies [mini Nilla wafers, to be exact] to convince her to try #1 also. It took a few tries, but she has gotten really good about doing that too. Thus far we've had several days in underwear that ended accident-free, which has been thrilling. We also still  have some accidents here and there, and are by no means ready to go without a diaper while sleeping. I also don't leave the house with her not in a diaper. So the good news is, we're making good progress.

The bad news is that the progress is... kind of a pain. We've made progress from having to ask her if she needs to go every 30 minutes to her telling us she needs to go... every 11 minutes. And don't get me wrong, it's so exciting that she's telling us and that she's staying dry almost all day [save for nap time]. She goes every time she tells us, too, so it's not like it's all false alarms. It is honestly just incredibly inconvenient to stop everything and run into the bathroom so flipping often. Every trip consists of kneeling on the floor to get her pants off, getting up to put her on the potty, kneeling to put her diaper/underwear/pants back on, and then standing again to wash her hands. It never fails that when we get home from the store or the playground and wash both of our hands, she will ask to use the potty within 3 minutes of leaving the bathroom. So. Much. Hand-washing.

I am just trying to remind myself that she is getting closer and closer to being fully potty trained and this is just part of the process. I truly am so proud of her. She hasn't given us any trouble with it at all. I've done a lot of potty training in my previous work at a day care center, so I can say with confidence that this has been about as simple as potty training gets. What has probably been most helpful is that we've not been in any rush. We've taken each step as she was ready for it and never pushed her more than she was willing to go. It has been a simple and relaxed process. She is also a super easy-going kid [and an only child], so I'm sure that hasn't hurt either. Though I don't want to put any deadlines on our work, I have a feeling that we could be done with diapers by the end of the year. And don't worry, when we are finally done with diapers, I'll be quick to share ;)