Our Road To Potty Training

I'm hoping I am not jumping the gun here by saying this, but I think we are almost ready to toss the diapers!

Now, I am not going to claim to be any kind of potty training expert here, but seriously, in a matter of just a few days, we got Palmer basically trained at home!  I knew it was coming soon and I happened to have a 4 day stretch off from work then Mitch started his 2 weeks off from work over the holidays. I figured this was the ideal time so we thought we would give it a whirl.

We used the old naked-at-home trick and it worked wonderfully. Aside from a couple little dribble accidents on the floor, Palmer rocked it. She hated the fact that I didn't put pants on her while at home for 4 days besides at nap and bed time, but she got use to it, and got use to using the potty.

I didn't anticipate how hard it was going to be for me! Seriously. Emptying the singing duck potty every 2 minutes. No exaggeration here, folks. I'm not sure if she just dribbled out a pee that often so she could get her jellybean or if she legit had to go, but this girl was keeping me busy, for sure! And following her around with a mop every so often... This mama didn't have time for anything but pee over those 4 days, which is fine with me if it means diapers are a soon-to-be distant memory.

Now, Palmer is good about letting us know. We have got a "big girl potty" (a seat that fits onto the toilet) on our main floor bathroom, which is SO. MUCH. EASIER. (for us), and she has no issues using it. We have had very few accidents over the past few weeks and I am confident we are on the right track. As of now, Palmer is only wearing diapers while she sleeps, and I think we will cut out the one at nap time very soon.

We are lucky too that we have a day home who is willing to help train her, considering Palmer spend the majority of her days there while we are working, we truly would not have been able to make it work out if we didn't have that.

So, I'm hoping we can have Palmer all trained before she turns 2 next week and we can be virtually diaper free!


I wanted to share a few tips with you all; ones that we found to be helpful. (Again, I'm obviously no expert here...just my opinions)

1. Don't get upset if your child has an accident. They are learning and it will take time. Getting angry may only make it worse. Instead, say "It's ok. Accidents happen" or something along those lines.

2. We brought the potty into the living room for easy access. When Palmer had to go, it was right now and not having to navigate our way through the house to the potty was so helpful. Every few days we would move it further and further until finally we just had it in the bathroom.

3. I set a timer for 15 minutes. When that timer went off, we tried using the potty. She sat there for a few minutes and if nothing happened, we would try 15 minutes later. Once she had success, we waited about 30-45 minutes and started the timer thing again. I found that 15 minutes was a good enough window to allow her to play and not get frustrated with having to sit on the potty too much.

4. We cheered! We had dance parties. High fives. We celebrated. In the beginning it was every. single. time. Made her know she was doing a good job. Now, I thank her for telling us when she has to use the potty. I think it was helpful. She knows she is doing it right.


Any other tips out there for mama's looking to start potty training?
What worked for you? How did you know the timing was right?

Things I Said Before I Was A Parent

I can remember back to before we were even expecting a baby, thinking about how I would plan to raise a child when the day came. I would see parents in the grocery store, a restaurant, or in the mall and judge them for what they were feeding their children, how their children were dressed, or how their children were acting. I thought to myself I will never let my child act like that, dress like that, or eat that!!! 

Boy, let me tell you, those thoughts the childless me had were so far from right. I see now, those parents weren't wrong. They were exhausted from fighting with their children who didn't want to eat the healthy food. They were burnt out from the lack of sleep from the child who didn't want to go to bed. They were done nit-picking about what outfit to dress their child in and let them dress themselves!

Before I was a parent I thought....

....my children will not eat junk food. They will only eat healthy food. This means no sugary snacks, no juice, no MacDonalds. 

Now - I just want her to eat. You don't want to eat the supper I made, even though I know you liked it the last time we ate it? Fine. I don't want to argue about it. Just eat. Eat whatever you want. Cheese and grapes? Sure. A bowl of cereal? You got it. Just please eat something!

...my children will not watch hours of tv, play video games, etc They will learn from books, puzzles and outside time.

Now - If watching 3 episodes of Bubble Guppies means I have a free minute to clean up the juice spills, please, watch on. If playing on the iPad for 20 minutes means I get a spare second to eat my cold breakfast and sip my cold coffee, please do it!

...my children will not act out. They will listen to and respect their parents.

Now - I just hope that I have a distraction close by when this happens. Do I have a snack in my purse? Is my iphone in my pocket? Is there anything at all I can negotiate with that will make her stop flailing around in the parking lot of the grocery store?

...I will not lie to my children. I will be honest with them.

Now - I probably lie on a daily basis. "Bubble Guppies is over." "The iPad is broken." "The juice is all gone." I like to think I am lying to her for her own good?!?

...I will not let my house turn into a child's playground. My house will be kept clean and well organized. 

Now - what on earth was I ever thinking? I clearly wasn't. There is a tornado of toys in every room on a daily basis. There is food crumbs trailing from the kitchen to every possible room. Yesterday, I even found a half eaten Timbit in the middle of the floor. There are tiny pieces of ripped up toilet paper scattered throughout the bathrooms. There are tiny little hand prints covering every surface of the house. There are socks hiding in every corner. 

But, I wouldn't have it any other way. A whole new reality hits when you become a parent but it is truthfully the best thing in the world.