Potty Training

When do you consider your child potty trained? Lillie has done amazing with this milestone. I want to share our approach so it may one day help us with our next; but probably not, since our kids are already so different. Just to keep this a little cleaner we will us the terminology "#1" and "#2." If you don't know what these are when it comes to potty training I'm sure you can look it up on Wikipedia.

We tested out the idea well before we knew she was ready; sometime in January. Using the potty was an easy concept for her to pick up on and she was pretty good about #2, but she had an accident every time she needed to go #1. Well, this planted the seed. She would just use the potty, mostly #2 but sometimes #1, about once a week. This was nice because who likes to change #2 diapers. The more time went on the more Lillie would use her potty but there was not a big push from us. Every time she did we would get really excited and we would call Dad up at school and make it an exciting thing. We went to Utah in May then when we got back I KNEW it was time.

June 1st, at exactly 2 and 1/2, we took off the diaper and put on the panties. We bought her a water bottle to help her stay hydrated and went for it.

• Day one we had only three accidents all #1.
• Day two-five only about one accident a day and only one was a #2.
  
• Day five-seven no accidents. We did put her in a diaper for church though.
  
• The next week only one accident and we did put her in a diaper for church but she asked to use the potty all day and came home dry.
  
• Week three we have been brave and going out of the house with out a diaper. NO ACCIDENTS and there are countless times we didn't even know she went and her little potty would get pretty full before we realized.
  

We gave her so much praise every time she went and we would have her say "Hip Hip Hurray" three times. We have just been so excited for her and she loves the attention. We decided not to do rewards because we didn't want potty training to be all about "what do I get out of it." We also didn't make it a big deal when she had an accident we would just say "#1 and #2 go in the potty," to worked really well and didn't make her feel bad when she had an accident.

She has also been using to "big potty" more and more. She seems to like it better because she can be like mom and dad. We like it better because then we don't have to empty her "little potty." She is nowhere near taking the diaper of at night/naps, but that is fine with us. We are so proud of her and how well she did with this. We are going on vacation on the 22nd and we have a long plane ride ahead of us, so if any of you have tips on how to travel with a newly potty trained kid feel free to comment PLEASE.

These videos are just of Lillie going on a "Bear Hunt" and an "Octopus Hunt" a game she (and Dad, since it's his new church calling) learned in nursery and she loves to play it at home.