Potty boot camp

We had planned to go to a Civil War re-enactment day as a family, but at the last minute (basically because I've been quite tired lately) we changed plans and Tom took Lukas and Konrad while I stayed home with Natalie and Dominik.  Unfortunately, I hadn't changed the batteries in the camera, so Tom didn't get any pictures to share of the fun time they had.  Konrad said a lot of things went "boom," and Lukas said a man screamed when a doctor used a large forceps to remove a bullet from someone who then "died."  All the guns and cannon were probably too loud for a baby anyway!

But here was my chance!  I finally had just two kids at home, so I did potty training boot camp with Natalie:  underwear, Elmo's Potty Time, lots of apple juice, M&Ms for being dry, and the ultimate prize for peeing in the potty:  two stickers and a bite of ice cream.  She was in underwear from 8 am to 4 pm and here are the results:

Natalie peed in the potty three times!  My big goal was for her to have at least one success, and she had three, so that's great.  She hadn't peed in the potty in a long time, so it was important that we make that connection first.

Natalie is more comfortable on the potty seat that goes on top of the toilet than on the small potty that's on the floor (which makes me very happy, because I hate emptying the little potty!)  We had the seat from when Lukas learned to use the potty because he was too large to use any of the small potties.  Konrad used our small potty a few times then graduated to the toilet within a few days:  I didn't even pull out the potty seat for Konrad because he was doing so well without it.  Anyway, Natalie didn't like the potty seat at first, but within a few times of sitting on it, she was fine.  Natalie never sat well on the little potty, and now she can't get off this potty seat without help (at least, she thinks she can't!) so it's a much better situation all together:  she will stay seated for 5 or 10 minutes instead of sliding around and getting up.

We had a lot of singing and animated story telling while Natalie sat, and Natalie enjoyed singing with me too.  While she used the potty three times, we also went through 7 pairs of underwear and pants during that 8 hour period, and several mop ups (thankfully they were all on the wood floor, but one book was sacrificed).  She also wet her pants again several times immediately after she had used the toilet or wet her pants...so she knows how to hold it!

I think today was a benefit.  She's made a very small step, but hopefully if I can do a few more 4- and 8-hour slots of boot camp (putting her on the potty every 15-30 minutes), she might make a breakthrough.  I don't know what a breakthrough would be, but I'll know it when I see it!