Just Like That....

Miss Nora is "getting" the potty thing -- rather quickly -- thank goodness. That first week I was in pure hell...not knowing when or where the next pee accident would come, I had to figure out:

A: whether I should just put her in enough layers that when she DID pee it didn't make an epic mess or

B: whether I should put her in NOTHING so she could figure out how/where all that pee and poop is coming from, and THEN she could figure out where to put it.

I tried C: All of the above.

But in the course of a week, we had a success here and there. Despite offering her stickers and M&Ms and my kidney if she ever needs one, she went more for stickers.

And thankfully, after offering her everything under the sun, this past week (including a day off from her short hospitalization for her tonsillitis), has gotten progressively better with relatively little more than praise. And stickers.

In fact, the day off at the hospital when I just finally gave her diapers instead of anything else because let's face it, an IV in a kid's arm is going to kill the whole "Want to go potty honey?" agenda I had just the day before.

Tuesday when she was so sick in the morning with her fever, I had her sit on the potty once, and I felt so bad for her I just put her in Pullups until our appointment at the doc, and even at the hospital I downgraded even further to diapers. I didn't know how long she'd be sick, but I just didn't have the heart to keep going with potty training until she was better.

So yesterday at home she woke up feeling fairly well so I offered her either her Tinkerbell underwear or her Pullup, and she chose her underwear! She only had ONE accident the whole day.

TODAY, she had NO ACCIDENTS! I really MADE her sit and pee a couple of times today (she insisted she didn't have to go once, but I said "so, do you want to have an accident in your pants or go potty?" and she chose the potty).

But the big breakthrough I thought was when I dressed her right after going potty, and after I left the room she took her own panties AND pants off and sat down and she went #2 without me asking or anything! The key for her seems to be to have a little privacy, and she'll sit on her own and do it. She also LOVES the sticker book for potty achievements and she high fives me and yells "I DID IT!" whenever she poops or pees. This is especially fun in public restrooms, as I found out later...

So, I took her to Target after all that (figuring it was safe to go to the store) and I offered to buy her a toy or a book, and we picked out a coloring book...and a Diego potty seat (she's REFUSED to use the folding toilet seat that's just too slippery on those big public seats, and is horrified by my offer to sit her on it backwards). Well, she was dancing in the toy aisle so I knew we didn't have much time to go before she'd want to pee at home, so I offered to take her to the bathroom after we bought our stuff and use her Diego seat, and SHE SAID YES, then she DID IT! She peed in a public restroom!

Then as we were leaving, she saw popcorn and asked for it, and I folded like a cheap lawn chair.

Look kid, you pee and poo for a whole day in the right place. Mommy will spring $1 for the Target popcorn for dinner.

I had her call Daddy and my Mom and she bragged all about the day with no accidents. I'm just so stinking proud of her!

As an update to her medical checkup yesterday -- she's doing very well too with no fever...on 10 days of amoxycillan...too tired to look up the proper spelling, but she's doing great. Doc says we'll watch her and if it comes back, tonsils come out.