Potty Training…End of Day 2

So we went a step back today.  I decided maybe I was going too fast too soon and after her first wet pair of knickers just after John left for work and the fact that she was asking for “Dora” (her pull-ups) I decided to give it a shot.  The plan was to set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and then put her on the potty.  The problem was she kept peeing between the kitchen timer going off.  This afternoon has been a battle of wills…plus the excitement of my cousin, Rose, coming for a short visit.  So today we’ve succeeded in nothing.  With all her trips to sitting on the toilet and the potty she’s peed nowhere except in her pull-ups or her knickers today.  I think I’m just going to leave the potties out for the rest of the week and every time she tells me she’s soggy I’ll sit her on the potty and see how she does.  It’s not as if I can bribe her as there’s nothing she loves one go that will be useful the next.  She changes her mind so frequently. 

I’ll keep you updated of progress.

Potty Training….Coming to an End of Day 1

So OK I decided I was going to start full ahead potty training with Kirsten this morning so I got her up and stripped her of pajamas and nappy and sat her on the toilet and then to her potty in the upstairs bathroom before putting on big girl knickers and a dress.  We got downstairs and I introduced her to the 2 potties downstairs and she still did nothing (I’ve put one on the floor in the kitchen and one on the floor in the family room).  She was just finishing breakfast when she announced she was soggy so I took her knickers off and sat her on the potty in the kitchen.  She did a couple of drops and then went down to the potty in the family room and did a couple of drops there, then she went back up to the potty in the kitchen and sat on it and peed again.  I thought woo hoo.  We put a new pair of big girl knickers on and about 30 minutes later she announced she was soggy!  Off came the soggy knickers and down she went on the potty….nothing!  This time I left off the knickers and about 15 minutes later she went to the potty in the family room and peed! OK so there was as much on the floor as in the potty, but that was beside the point.  We then had to go out and run some errands so I put one of the potty’s in the back of the car with us and although she told me she needed potty and she sat on it in the car in front of the post office there was nothing.  We went into target and we started out by going to the bathroom….nothing, but of course withing 5 minutes a soggy pair of knickers…of course I’d forgotten to bring my spares so we went and found some and I opened the packet and gave her a pair.  When she went down for her nap I put on a nappy (not pull-ups).  She got up from her nap and we sat on the toilet and the potty and put on knickers they stayed dry.  We went to Jo-Anns and she told me she needed to go potty so off we trotted to the restrooms.  She was dry and I got nothing from her.  After another 20 minutes she announced she was soggy so we ran back to the restroom and of course…she was soggy.  We changed her knickers paid and came home.  As soon as we came home I stripped her down and sat her on the potty.  Within 5 minutes a soggy pair of knickers.  This time I sat her on the potty stripped her and left all clothes off and set the kitchen timer for 25 minutes in under 5 she told me she was wet and I had a big puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor.  She looked as if she was trying to do a no. 2 and she kept asking for a pull-up so I put one on her as I don’t need her even more constipated.  The kitchen timer has just hit it’s 25 minutes so my plan was to stick her on the potty.  She has a soggy pull-up and won’t let me take it off.  I have at least 5 pairs of soggy knickers and I’m only at 4pm on day 1!  Is my child really ready for this…am I really ready for this!!

Potty Training on the Horizon

Well another week has come and gone and I’m doing my best to work out ways to “bribe” Kirsten to avoid tantrums.  This has included anything from getting some chocolate milk to drink to get her out of the car to going inside to wash her toy cow in order to get her off the swing and inside to have a bath.  This week she has also worked out that if she “hurts” herself someone will kiss it better.  The problem is that we kiss it better and then she tells us it was actually the other side and so it keeps on going.  At least she hasn’t worked out about plasters (band aids) yet.  She actually pulls those off as soon as they go on because they hurt!

Tomorrow the plan is to start fully with the potty training.  This week I made sure that I had toilet seats; paper towel; disenfecting wipes and plenty of little girl knickers.  I’ll be putting a potty in the back of the car.  Ask me tomorrow night (Monday) how I’m doing and I’ll probably already have had enough.  I have already removed the toilet paper from beside the toilet in Kirsten’s bathroom as she sits on the toilet seat and stuffs toilet paper into the toilet between her legs and then looks at me and points her finger going “Kirsten no”.  She knows she’s not supposed to do it, but it is great fun none the less.

She’s also picking up on words faster than I would like.  I wasn’t thinking this morning and said “b*gg*r” and she spent the next 5 minutes repeating it back to me.  She and I went out for a little while this afternoon and she dropped the little bag she was carrying and sure enough out of her mouth she started saying the same word.  This afternoon though she learned tomatoe and burger.  I’m hoping that she’ll think she was actually saying burger rather than what she was saying.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Weekly Goings On

John got back almost a week ago, and trust me Kirsten was over the moon to have Daddy back. Over the weekend she clung to him like a limpet. On Saturday we took her to Build A Bear at Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall as she’d received a $25 gift voucher for her birthday. She ended up creating a monkey which Daddy named “Bubbles”. Not sure why he chose the name, but it is one that Kirsten remembers so now everywhere we go not only do we take the usual toys: Elmo and Babba (the elephant blanket) but now we have to add in Bubbles to the mix. Taking her milk is quite a saga what with sititing on my lap, the 3 toys and of course don’t forget the blanket…and yes we now well in to the 100s in temperatures.

The big goings on for last week is that I have enrolled Kirsten in preschool. I have found a program for two’s and Best Pals in Cave Creek and Kirsten will be in the Young Twos which means she will attend Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 – 12.   http://www.bestpalspreschools.com/   The school calendar follows that of the Cave Creek Unified School District so Kirsten will start school on Tursday 6 August. We have a meet and greet with the teacher on Tuesday 4 August. Now I’ve just got to get everything ready.

We have also started potty training…or at least the next stage. She’s been using the potty just before the bath (or rather by sitting on it as soon as she gets in the bath) since before Christmas. Now we’ve upgraded her to a toilet seat on the toilet but then sits on the potty straight afterwards but outside of the bath. Next week (Monday) I will start in earnest having bought plenty of kitchen roll and disenfecting wipes for clearing up any accidents and also lots of big girl knickers!!! I’ll let you know how we get on.

Terrible Twos

John left for his Company’s annual conference this morning at 8.45am and isn’t due back until around 8pm on Wednesday evening.  That’s 5 full days with my daughter on my own.  We hit the terrible twos about 2-3 weeks ago and it isn’t good.  We hit “Time Outs” at exactly the same time.  We have tantrums getting into the car (she climbs straight across to the passenger seat); tantrums getting out of the car (she climbs into the driver’s seat); tantrums in stores (even had the security guard asking me if he could help in Target on Friday).  I’m not sure what else to say.  This week i’ve ended up with a bruised nose, a scratched left cheek and various other bruises from the kicking and scratching where I lift her out of the car.  She can hardly stay in a garage that reaches over 100 degrees!!  Anyway today I just suggested that if she didn’t stop screaming that minute I would put her in “time out” so she walked across to the mat that we have been using, sat down on it, and carried on screaming!  Great…where does that leave me now!!

This morning we went to Ikea and she actually didn’t throw any tantrums in the store which is rare, but did throw one getting into the car and getting out again.  I only had a mini tantrum from Kirsten when it was time to get out of the bath and when she wanted to “bounce” on the bed I explained that she’d run out of time due to not having got out of the bath sooner.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  I’ve booked her into childcare at the gym so that I can burn off some personal energy and hopefully she’ll also burn some off.  As for the remainder of our 5 days thankfully we have a swim class on both Monday and Wednesday mornings and we’ll go to storytime at the local library on Tuesday afternoon.  I’ll have to think of something to do in the afternoons that’s different as without Daddy time it’s a long time till bedtime.  We did buy the basic trainset at Ikea this morning and I won’t use it until I have to in the next few days.

I’ll let you know how I do.