Toilets and Teething

There have been some major developments in our house this weekend.

Sophia has decided to leave her days of infancy with guns blazing.  Well, with gums blazing anyway.  The poor thing is cutting four teeth on the top, all at the same time.  Two are just poking through and the the other two are pushing up.  Her little gums are so swollen and she is so irritable.  I feel so sorry for her.  Hopefully they'll all be through in the next week or so and she can get a break before the next set comes through. 

Our other big news is that I decided to use this long weekend to start potty training with Emma.  We've tested the waters before, but have always been met with resistance.  This time, we didn't give her a choice.  We told her there were no more diapers that fit her and that she was going to start wearing big girl panties like all of her friends.

We've been "warning" her all week that this was coming, so when she woke up on Saturday morning, she was ready to go.  She was a little hesitant and had three accidents that morning.  She seemed pretty disappointed after the third time and didn't have any accidents for the rest of the day!  We pumped her full of fluids all day so she would have to go often and get the practice. We aren't using treats each time she goes, but she does get a sticker for her potty chart. She also gets a cookie if she wakes up dry from her nap.  We used a Pull-Up for her nap and she woke up dry and went potty as soon as she woke up.

Nighttime was another story.  We cut off all fluids after dinner and she woke up dry, but didn't wake up, ahem, "clean" if you know what I mean...any suggestions there?

Today was day two and she was ready to put on her Minnie Mouse underwear as soon as she woke up. YAY!  She had a special big girl breakfast to celebrate her hard work.  We did lots of fluids again today.  She kind of balked at first about the constant drinking, but the fun straws and milk whenever she wanted helped tempt her. We did a Potty Pedi today to make things a little more fun. I bought her new Dora underwear and I told her if she didn't have any accidents today that she could wear them tomorrow.  It must have worked because she had NO accidents all day and woke up from her nap nice and dry. It was a GREAT day!

Showing off her newly painted fingers and toes.

For all of you seasoned mamas, I have a question for you. She's super excited about using the potty and so are we.  However, she's manipulating the system a little.  I'll put her down for a nap or for bed at night and she'll call out for me one second later and say she needs to go potty.  She will, but it's such a minuscule amount that she's obviously forcing herself to go.  She did that three times today during her nap. She'll also do this at dinner when she doesn't want to eat.  How do I find the balance between keeping her enthusiastic without having me run all over the place to help her go potty?

Tomorrow is day three, and my first day without Andy home.  When Andy gets home, I'm going to take somewhere (probably Target i.e. our second home) to practice when we're out and about. Wish us luck!