Sooo.......

Warning, mention of kids and their bodily excretions here. Mention of words like *gasp* poop and teetee.

So....we are potty trained! Woohoo!!! Excuse me for just a moment. (Now jumping up and down, doing my pathetic version of a cartwheel, screaming like a maniac). Ok. I'm much better now.

For months, we have been in the potty training process. Months. We tried to take a slow approach, but those of you who know me know that slow isn't much a part of my vocabulary. So this approach has been a rather long one. She, since summer, has been going sort of on a regular schedule. Mainly at 1.5-2 hour intervals. But with a baby, sometimes time flew by without me realizing it. And when that scheduled time was forgotten, or if the cup of apple juice went straight through her, I would quickly realize have a problem on my hands when we had wet pants, or worse, poopy pants. She would never tell us when she needed to go, but she had no problem going when we told her it was time to go. Some days we stayed clean and dry all day. Others, not so much. Some, she'd only have one accident. And others, it seemed like she went through 5 outfits.

What finally worked for us, other than the fact that she was just ready, was getting some cheap trinket toys at walmart store for under $1. I stocked up on them, wrapped them in wrapping paper, and put them in a basket by her little potty. I told Zoe that when she would tell us that she needed to go potty, and she could go in her potty, she could pick a present out. I had things like kid nailpolish (not full of chemicals like ours), kid chapstick, a little mirror, etc. Girly things. She got two the first day. And she was poop trained by the next day, telling us everytime she had to go. She's quite regular! She has only had one accident since (that was about a month ago). But we still weren't pee trained. We were still in the stage of just go when you had to, regardless of where you were. So w/in 5 days, all the gifts were gone, none of which were earned for going pee. I gave it a few weeks and tried again. This time, we went and bought some of these little 2 inch tall figures...like Minnie, Pooh Bear, etc. Over the months, she had already accumulated all of the Disney characters except Mickey, and all the Pooh characters except Tigger. (We did this same idea when we were trying to get her to just go on her potty many, many months ago) They hadn't carried them, I guess. But the day that we went, they just so happened to have Mickey. Tada! So we did the same thing with her. Told her that if she told us she needed to go teetee and went, she could have Mickey. Well, let's just say that Mickey sat in the bathroom unopened for quite some time...about two weeks. A few nights ago, we were eating, and little Miss Priss announces, "I have to go teetee!" Usually when she says this, she would be going at that point...in her pants. So up we flew, grabbed her out of her chair, whisked her away to her potty...and...SUCCESS! Mickey earned. So Friday, to make sure that we continued, I let her pick out only two things at the Dollar Tree that she could earn if she went by herself. And guess which character they had this time??? Tigger! What a coincidence! That was an obvious choice for her. The other thing she picked out? A Tigger slap bracelet. Too fun! So she got one, actually, that afternoon an hour or so after we got home. The other she earned this morning. All yesterday, she just held it...until it got to the point where we'd just tell her to go, that is. Stubborn little thing! She had a tiny little accident last night, but not a "full" accident. It's been about 5 days now since the first success, and she tells us most of the time...unless it's one of her stubborn moments and she tries to hold it for long periods of time (which we won't let her do).

So no more "gifts" for her. We just did those few at the beginning, and the couple more when she started to tell us for the other, although having a second round of toys was never the initial idea. Now she just gets a high five and a half an orange slice (candy orange slice, not a real orange). After we run out of those, we'll just continue the high fives and stop all treats.

So I know that time will truly tell if she is fully trained or not...but this is HUGE. That was our next big goal - to get her to verbalize before she went in the pants. Goal achieved!!!

Now to begin the night training. Any suggestions??? I know you have them!