Elise Potty Trained

We potty trained Elise in July at just over 2 years, she was totally ready, as she had been watching and trying to copy her sister for awhile but we wanted to wait until the family reunion, swim lessons and all that stuff was over.

I personally hate potty training because I feel like I am stuck in the house for a week until they get the hang of it, not wanting to go to the store or anywhere where there surely would be puddles. It took a good 2 days is all until she got the hang of it and was having minimal accidents. Though we kept the area rug tucked away for a few weeks as she was still learning and would have accidents here and there every day. I gave her lots of juice and drinks and I had her help me take her Josh teddy bear to the bathroom often. I would squirt yellow, food coloring dyed, water from a syringe behind the bear and then we would clap for the Josh bear and give him a treat and let him put a sticker on the sticker chart. Then when Elise went potty we would do the same thing for her.

Some funny things about potty training Elise is that Anna was not going to be left out. She wanted a treat too and a sticker every time she went potty also, though she is already potty trained, she even wanted the praise attention and clapping that we gave Elise so it was like potty training two girls, except the one never had accidents. Anna had her own sticker chart too.

It was funny watching the girls and their different cognitive levels. When I would put the teddy bear on the toilet and discreetly squirt the yellow water into the toilet behind the bear to make him pee, Elise would just watch and say, “Good job Josh Bear” like it was normal that teddy bears peed in the toilet. On the other hand Anna would grab the teddy bear, pick him up and look behind him and underneath him trying to figure out how I made that happen. Then she would look at me very suspiciously. Kinda funny. I never let her on to it though.

Another thing different between the two was that Anna was big on the treat (two skittles) part of it and Elise could really care less about the skittles. The thing that motivated her was that she wanted a sticker to put on her sticker chart.

Well, no more diapers for a few months until baby comes. Just pull-ups at night and naps, I am not going to attempt potty training the girls at night quite yet. I don’t have it in me, especially with a new baby on her way.