Preferences?

Julia had last peed about 90 minutes ago so I asked her if she wanted to pee-pee. I tried to get her to sit on the potty and she sat, but did not pee. I knew she had to go soon though so I was watching her carefully and suggested "panties off, find potty" and other phrases she recognizes.

She got up and wandered off to the green bathroom, picked up the toddler ring insert and wonked it on the toilet.

I thought, "Okaaay... let's take that as a cue and see what happens."

So I put the toddler ring on the toilet seat and helped her take panties off and plopped her on the seat. And she peed!

So I don't know if she's showing a preference for the toddler ring over the potty (in which case our search for a taller potty back not even be needed) or if this was a fluke thing.

The Baby Bjorn regualr potty has that annoying splash guard. The Baby Bjorn Little Potty has it as well but it is shorter. Julai had a hard time sitting on the regular version at Babies 'R Us so I have to check out other models and see what we will do.

Those stupid splash gurads are there for boys but since boys pee sitting down so little a time before they learn to pee standing up... I find it annoying that there aren't models without it.

Bah.

Blue training diaper

Monique sent Julia a 2 layer fleece training diaper. Same as the ones I make minus the soaker bit. Idea being that Julia can take it off easier than regular panties but it will still preserve her modesty and let her feel wet.

So I was trying to take her photo wearing it so I could send it on to Monique to thank her for the gift and ended up capturing a whole potty sequence instead.

First, Julia sitting on me in the pastel blue training diaper.

She was already starting to yank at the tabs so I let her off my lap and watched to see what she would do. Julia first got the tabs off and got naked. She was also searching the floor for the potty.

She started to pee on the floor and grabbed her crotch and (a first!) STOPPED peeing on the floor while looking down at the puddle. She found the potty and started to hit it.

We've been leting her play with an empty U-haul box and the potty was too close to it for her to sit on. Julia was hitting it to try to get it out I guess. So I had to move it further away from the box. Once it was out she stood up and sat on it....

.. and to my surprise finished peeing IN THE POTTY!

When I looked up from taking the picture she had taken both the training diaper and one of the clean purple ones and threw it into the box!

If she's going to start throwing the diapers away after she pees then I'm going to start bringing the diaper pail out with the potty into the living room when we play there. She can learn to put it in the right box and not just any old box that happens to be nearby.

I'm THRILLED for her -- this is def. her month for potty training! I have no idea how she's going to surprise me tomorrow.

More panties

Got another pack of panties and some T-shirts last night so we can keep Julia with easy access to her diapers/panties round the clock. No bottoms or long nightgowns or dresses at home. Minimizing the obstacles so we can set her up for potty successes.

Last night she was on the potty and I think she was copying me saying "Sssssss" at her to cue her to pee.

Julia's started to whisper "pee-pee-pee-pee" at me in the morning sometimes. When we wake up and I ask her "Hello! Are you ready to pee pee? Where's the potty?" She stands up and peers over me to see the floor and searches visually for the potty and goes "pee-pee-pee-pee."

Paul and I noticed that when she's working on adding a word she whispers it rather than saying it loudly. Like she's testing it first. It's cute. But so far, just "up" and "ba" for "ball" are the regulars. I think she says "Da" for Daddy" but Paul's not too sure that is moved out of just babble but I keep telling him she only says it when she knows he is home. She never goes around saying "Da! Da!" when he's not there. So I think that counts as a real word.

And it looks like "pee pee pee" might be the next.

Panties and potty

Got Julia panties and have been letting her learn to take them off. She has accidents in them though because they slow her down.

But the rewards keep coming...

I've been taking the potty around with us and when she peels the diapers off I aks her to "Go sit on the potty" and she does go to sit. Sometimes backwards. Sometimes sideways. But she's on there. I'm trying to get her to make the connections between need to go, take of diaper, sit on potty so she does it all in the correct order without my prompting her along the way. (Are you takign that off? Ok. Diaper off then. Off. The other side. Get up now. Up. Up. Up. Find Potty. Where's potty? Sit on the potty. Sit. Sit. Ssssssss....)

Last night she peed on the potty by herself... kinda. NO prompting from the side.

I'd JUST checked her so I knew she was dry.

So I set her down in the living room to play. I was on the couch eating a tangerine watching her. She messed with her blocks for a minute, stood up, went to the potty, tried to sit on it and missed. She was on the floor. I didn't say anything. I wanted to see her try to do it all alone. Julia stood up again, and sat ona blaock. She stood upagain and then sat on the potty sideways. She stayed there a while and sort of felt her diaper tabs through her nightgown but didn't know how to reach them. (Mental note -- keep her in T-shirts even at night so she can find the tabs easily.)

I went over to check her and she had peed! In her diaper, but on the potty! We went to tell Daddy and he was equally pleased.

Paul told him his mom told him she's really curious to see how Julia comes along compared to her aunt and uncles. My MIL said she didn't have the patience to start as young as we did but she started her kids as soon as they were walking and the potty trained by the time they were 18 mos. Accidents here and there, but mainly done. She also said that she thinks that if a child isn't potty trained by the time they are 2 or at least in the process of it by 2, the parents are just being lazy.

I have to agree. I don't see the point in delaying potty training for a healthy child. If there's some kind of medical issue involved that's something else but for helathy kid? Why wait?

Bathroom Scale is NOT Potty

She's really trying on the potty front today! Third entry of the night!

Paul was running the bath water to bathe the baby and I was in the bathroom with him trying to set out towels and things. Julia's walking over from her room completely naked since Paul undressed her over there but I didn't see her coming.

Suddenly Paul says, "I think you daughter just peed on the scale."

I turn around and look. There's Julia, getting back up off it and a little puddle left behind on the scale. We praised her for trying to put her pee in a "potty" and Paul bathed her while I cleaned up the scale.

I have to hide the scale now. From her point of view I suppose it does look sort of potty-ish -- a low squat stool thing to sit on to pee at. From my point of view it not where I want her going!

So we carry on with Julia trying to figure the "where." She's aware of the "when" and she's trying to do something about it herself but still coming along with the "where" and once there, "how long" to sit there.

Poop

Trying to be more aggressive about catching the poo even though Julia's not as good about announcing poo ahead of time like she is with pee. She seems to be a public pee-er but a private poop-er.

On the bright side, she's decent about pooping at about the same time each night. It just isn't handy because usually Paul is napping and I'm trying to make dinner but tonight I decided to let dinner go late and be more available for her.

Took her to pee in the bathroom on the toddler insert for the toilet and then I let her hang around naked while playing. Julia spent a while checking out her bead maze and then made an attempt to to sit on her potty. She didn't stay on it long enough though and wandered off looking kind of spaced out. I knew it was close to time so I was hunkering around after her, potty in hand. I saw her start to poo (how can anyone poo standing up? I can't!) and got the potty under her and her sitting on it quickly.

So we got the poo in the potty. Yay!

I made her sit a bit to be sure it was all in there and then let her look at the results. She watched me empty it into the toilet and flush and then I got her in the tub for a quick wash up. Julia kept looking at the potty and then trying to look in her crotch.

Presumably amazed this came out of her bum.

crib wet, diaper dry

11.5 months old.

Feels like things are snowballing on the potty training front.

First, she's ripping her diapers off before having to go whether I'm there or not.

When I catch it as a cue we can get the pee in the potty. When it happens in the crib the sheets end up wet because I've placed her in there to be safe while I go do something else like make dinner. Wish she'd start doing some kind of verbal alert to go with all this so I know to come get her out of the crib and not miss the short window between "diaper off, baby pees."

She used to scream when in a wet diaper but now that she takes the diapers off and doesn't wet herself I don't know it's happening/happened if I am not in the room til I see the puddle on the sheets and her playing half naked and dry nearby. Strangely, when she's NOT in the crib she doesn't pee on the floor... she comes to find me.

I don't know how to teach her to call out "pee!" I know she can say it, but she doesn't use it for pee announcements yet.

Second, she can sit on the potty and sit "backwards." We have a little trouble sometimes about getting the aim centered or sitting on it the wrong way around, but she's sitting on it herself and pauses in play to go sit on it. If I ask here where the potty is she looks around for it. So she knows what it is and she knows it is for sitting.

Although the connection has yet been made, she's so close to putting "take diaper off before pee" and "go sit on potty" I can't help but feel excited! Yay!

So reliable!

Julia has become SO reliable in pulling the tabs off before she's got to go in such a short time!

So when I see/hear her doing it several times a day I know to get her ready on the potty or toilet in the bathroom.

I asked Paul if he thought we should try training pants. He said she might still be too young. I think we ought to let her at least try -- who knows? She can do tabs... maybe she can do pull down elastic too? We won't know unless we let her try. Still deciding.

But at home I'm making it a point to have her in tabbed diapers more often so she can get both cover AND diaper off. Probably need to sew up a bunch more.

Argh. Must make time to sew!

Thinking

This tabs off thing... she's doing it BEFORE having to go, but now we're having trouble with how far ahead is adequate and how far ahead is too far ahead of time. Julia did it three times last night and the first two times it was a bust and the third time it was too late because I was starting to not believe her and took too long to respond and by that time it was all done in the diaper. She got cross with me and gave me a LOOK. So no clap for me that time.

(Paul is still tickeld she claps after peeing in the potty.)

I'm thinking maybe I ought to just let her stay naked after the first "announcement" that a pee is on the way and let her work it out from there. Floor be damned.

I was thinking of how far along we've come in the last 7 mos with this potty training business and I'm amazed.

Staying dry though the night has been normal for so long I forgot to note when it started happening.

She's up to 3 hrs dry out and about, which makes being out and about easier. She'll willingly go in a public bathroom -- no fears about the adult size toilet. (I've read this can become an issue.)

She's big enough to sit on a toddler toilet ring placed within the ring of the grown-up toilet and not fall in at home, so now I have to get a stool so we can teach her to get up there on her own. I remember when she'd fall into the the hole of her potty when she was first sitting on her own. Sigh. Growing up!

Toilet paper is a familiar sight now, but at the moment she just want to unroll it all off the wall. Doesn't yet try to mimic using it although I use it on her when we use the "big" toilet.

She helps stick her arms through her t-shirts now, and tugs at her shorts (elastic waist) somewhat so managing to scrootch them down for potty busines is not too far off in the future. have to remember to let her practice this more. And start looking for training pant patterns to sew up.

She can say "bay-bay-bee" even though she doesn't yet apply it to herself or pictures of babies. But the "bee" part is close enough to "pee" so we may be ready to try to teach her to say "pee" or "bee" to let us know she has to go verbally.

Monique was asking me is toilet training was a drag... and I have to say no. VERY hands on, but I don't find the time spent with Julia teaching a drag.

Trying to sit, more tabs

Last night Julia peeled off her cover and I expected it to be wet inside but she was dry. So I put her on the potty, cued, and she peed! This is the first time she's peeled the diaper cover off before having to go instead of after.

Discovered that Julia seems to understand "Sit on the potty" somewhat too. After she peed I let her be naked for a bit and out of curiosity I tapped the potty and say "Julia, sit? Sit on the potty?" and she came over and try to sit on it. Did that 3 or 4 times before I let it go and quit asking her.

She doesn't understand that she has to turn around and sit "backwards" yet though because she comes over, looks at the potty, and sits down on the floor in front of it while still looking at it.

I'm not surprised since we still are working on backwards dismount from the bed. Sometimes she manages it and other times she tries diving head first rather than scooting to the edge, turning around, and dismounting feet first.

But still... progress!

Tabs off are a regalar thing

Update:

So Julia is now 11 mos old.

She now takes her diaper off completely (cover + Aplix fitted diaper) or partially (cover + CPF with Snappi) when she's soiled and throws it away on a regular basis if I've missed her cues and she's wet herself.

This is making Paul anxious because he is worrying about poo flying around.
On the flip side, I'm pleased because I know for sure now that SHE knows she's not supposed to be wet.

Had her motion at the potty twice. One time she actually peed in it, the other time was a false alarm. She's still trying to grab pee coming out or trying to watch it come out over her belly.

Trying to keep the potty in sight at all times in the hopes that she'll motion at it more often, esp. now that she's walking and she can physically take herself to it even though mentally she's not showing me she's made that connection yet.

Made me laugh today. I had a load of dirty diapers near the door since I was abotu to do laundry. She made a beeline for them and I said, "Julia, no touch." She looked at me and starting flapping her arms sobbing while running around the room in a circle.

She completed the round and ended up near the diapers and again started going for them and again I said "Julia, no touch." Arms flapping and going around the room again in the circle crying.

When she repeated the whole scenario and ended up clutching my leg sobbing I picked her up and we left the room to play in the living room instead so the diapers were no longer tempting her. It is because she likes to play with the laundry basket when it is empty.

But I had to laugh at her dilemma. REALLY wanting to play with the basket but at the same time REALLY wanting to obey me. So she ended up crying over the inner conflict and flapping her arms while running in circles.

Doing well

Still doing the same...

Julia continues to stay dry longer and longer. We're doing fine catching pees and so-so on poo.

Although yesterday Julia started yelling and takign the tabs off her diapers and started pooping so we caught half in the potty. So perhaps she's going to start yelling ahead of time instead of after on the poo front. That would certainly be a helpful cue for me!