Potty Training

Can you guess what we've been doing this week???
Potty TRAINING! I have been dreading/putting this off for a long time. My first "excuse" was pregnancy, then a newborn, then the holidays and traveling in the car, then Kate's surgery and then our trips...and then 8 months later I ran out of excuses. And it is time. She is interested. So Monday, we made a trip to Target to get all the "supplies." I let her pick out her new big girl panties. She picked Dora (there was not a great selection). So we started on Wednesday morning. No more diapers...we started immediately with accidents...3 of them (not that anyone was counting). Then, she did great! She even had a MAJOR success if you know what I mean. Wednesday afternoon was good too. No accidents...I never let her more than 2 steps away from me...but things were good. I was encouraged. And then Thursday came. I am not sure what happened overnight but we started with accidents...3 of them, again. I kept saying, Kate, tell me when you need to go potty. She would say ok, and then just never say anything. So, we tried a different tactic, which lead to lots of, I can't do it, I don't want to go potty, I don't want to try, No!, and tears! We were both frustrated and in tears at one point. M&M's weren't working, Reese's PB cups weren't working, nothing was working. And to top it off, Bryn decided to scream every time I left the room (separation anxiety???) so that was AWESOME! Figuring out the balance of letting Kate have accidents and learn that way, or pushing her to go potty was a challenge. I mean, I know you need to go when you have had 3 capri suns and 2 sippy cups full of lemonade. SOOOO, I ended Thursday pretty defeated thinking potty training was OVERRATED! Not to mention I had to clean up a MAJOR accident! I woke up Friday seriously contemplating just never taking her night time diaper off. But after she ate breakfast, she asked for her big girl panties...and I reluctantly obliged. Thankfully, Friday was much better...we still had a few accidents, but no screaming I don't want to go potty meltdowns like we had on Thursday. We even got in the car and drove thru Chick Fil A (and made it home dry). Today, was pretty good too...she had 2 accidents all day (and one was playing outside...we just didn't make it in in time). We still have a long way to go on the #2s but I think we are close to consistently getting the #1s. She even said, I need to go potty a few times without me asking/prompting. I am starting to read her better and know how long she can hold it. The 4 of us went out to eat for lunch and she went twice while we were out...no accidents! We really are so proud of her!

This is how Kate's looked the last 4 days...t-shirt and panties. She likes to put them on by herself...notice they are inside out :).

I have to keep reminding myself this is a PROCESS. We are not potty trained...we are potty training! And we will be able to leave the house (confidently) again one day!