When Scarlett was 18 months old, I bought her a pink princess potty to begin the process. I knew that 18 months old was young, but I figured it was a good time to get her acquainted with the potty and potty books. She didn't have much interest and then starting in February we tried again.
It was extremely stressful. Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing. I had Scarlett sit on the potty and gave her watered down juice to go. My thought process was if she peed in the potty after drinking juice, she'd get the connection. I read her many potty books, talked about big girl underwear, and showed her potty videos of Elmo who she loves. You name it, I did it! I kept reading online about potty training tips to try to educate myself too. Scarlett would get up from the potty and have an accident on the floor. It was really not something that I was a fan of and I thought we'd take a break from trying and revisit it.
Over the summer, we had more progress. Scarlett peed a few times in the potty and it was a very exciting moment! We used up all of her diapers and switched to pull-ups. I never bought a pack of diapers again. I recorded her progress on a potty chart and put a sticker underneath to give her encouragement. I'm not sure what happened, but in time the momentum was lost. I told myself that it was okay and maybe she's still not ready this time.
One day early last week she told me she had to go to the bathroom. I didn't really think anything of it because she has told me that before, but in reality just wants to wash her hands and play in the water. I sat her on the potty and she went! I was shocked and surprised. I really didn't expect her to go. We did a potty dance and I gave her tons of praise. It was safe to say we were both thrilled! I gave her a sticker for going and it was a great moment.
After that day, she's been going on the potty non-stop all day! Her progress is wonderful and it's very exciting that she can now tell me when she has to go. For the times that she doesn't, I put her on the potty just to continue the progress. She's still very happy with the dance, praise, and sticker. It won't be too long now until she's in big girl underwear full-time!
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