The Potty

Marley is officially potty trained! She has now gone 7 whole days without an accident!

I would love to say I have many, many tricks to share that made our experience as easy as it was. But I honestly think that the only reason it worked was because she was ready.

We have had the little potty sitting in the bathroom since Marley was 18 months old. And we have occasionally tried to get her to go use it, but she was never very into it. So, we dropped it and then tried again a few weeks later when we remembered again.

But last week, when I asked her to try and use the potty, she did it happily. I clapped and said "YAY!" and she looked so proud. But when I tried to put her diaper back on this time, she didn't want to. So, we did the naked thing for a while, and I kept reminding her that if she needed to use the potty, she should go to the bathroom. It clicked all of the sudden! She did great while we were at home... she only had one accident over the course of four days.

But I was still terrified to take her in public. The first trip we made in the car without a diaper was to the Bollins' house. That was a success, but the next day we were driving to Nacogdoches. So, I was worried that all the progress we had made would fly out the window. But we kept driving and she kept waiting until the next stop to use the potty! I was more surprised and proud with every stop! And then she only used one diaper (she still wears them at night) the whole time we were in Nacogdoches!

I have such a big girl now. We went out an bought her a few packages of big girl panties, and one of the only problems we have had so far is that she thinks she needs to change panties after the uses the potty. She thinks they are like diapers and they get "eewie" after a few hours. But, she's learning! Its weird to change my way of thinking about trips to the store and dinners at a restaurant. I have to bring an extra set of clothes (just in case!) but there's no diaper bag to bring in, no dirty diapers, and no washing diapers at night! I love it!

I really think the secret was that she was ready. Once she was ready to do it, there wasn't any "training" necessary. It just worked!