Adventures in Potty-Training
Over the past six months or so Evie occasionally would ask to go on the potty. She would sit and sometimes go (we call it “pee-pees” ‘round here)., but more frequently just want to rip off some toilet paper and then get to flush the toilet. The last month, though, she has managed to do some business almost every time I’ve put her up there. The only thing was that if I asked her if she wanted to use the potty, it was an immediate “Uhhhh, Nope! I wearing a diaper.”
I knew we were ready in the middle of June to really start potty training, but we had a week-long car trip to Colorado planned. 19 hours straight in the car with small children was daunting enough without adding in stopping every hour for a pee break. So I bought another huge box of diapers and we made it back from Colorado none the worse for having spent so long on the road. We got back on a Friday and I decided to take the weekend to settle back into normalcy. The kids jumped easily back into their schedules and so by the time Monday came around I felt I was ready to take the plunge. When I tucked Evs in on Sunday night, I told her that in the morning we were going to start potty training. She seemed excited.
Monday morning was a different story, however. She’s like her dada in the mornings. Neither of them do well with my chatter as they're still rubbing sleep out of their eyes. I’ve learned to give my husband 10 minutes to fully wake up before I start jabbering, but I now know my daughter needs the same consideration. Except with her, it means giving her breakfast and a cuddle before I expect her to put on panties.
The first day I set the timer for five-minute intervals. Every time she went in the toilet she got a little piece of cantaloupe as a reward. Well, she thought that was grand, so she made sure she went a little. Every. Five. Minutes. I started to rethink our frequency. If she continued to eat cantaloupe every five minutes for the rest of the day we were going to have a-whole-nother issue on our hands – one that wouldn’t aid the potty-training process. So that afternoon I bumped the time up to every 10 minutes. And she did great! I was so excited.
We’re now on day five of potty training and Evelyn now helps me set the timer for every 30 minutes. I ask her when the timer goes off if she needs to go. Sometimes she’ll go to the bathroom and other times she’ll say no. Then, I set the timer for 10 more minutes and insist she goes after that point. I can count on one hand how many accidents she’s had in the last five days, so I’m really optimistic that we’ll just have one child in diapers before too long.