Potty-Training Prisoners

Over Memorial Day weekend we finally buckled down and potty trained Evie.  A took Elina and Eli down to Brownsville to see the grandparents, so B and I were left with just Evie.  We figured since we'd only have one kid to worry about, this was the perfect time to try.  Honestly, we've been wanting to do it for awhile now.  Ever since she turned 2, she's shown a lot of interest in using the potty.  There was even a day where she said, "Mommy, I go poop in my pants," right before she went #2 in her diaper.  That's definitely a sure sign of readiness, isn't it???  But with moving and being homeless for almost a month, there was no possible way we could get it done any earlier.  This was finally our first free weekend to try to potty train her....

...and it's worked out wonderfully!  That's not to say it wasn't a rough journey...

Over the weekend I really really really wanted to gouge my eyeballs out.  From the get-go, I could tell that Evie understood "the feeling."  However, since she knew her pee might be coming, every 5 minutes she'd tell us, "I go potty."  So every 5 minutes we'd have to take her to the bathroom and sit her on the potty.  It was a nightmare for my back and belly.  She usually peed on every 20th trip...so you can see how that could get a teeny tiny teensy bit frustrating.  Then she felt like she had to poop.  With the poop, she was on and off the potty every 2 minutes!!  So I just gave up and sat in the bathroom reading a magazine while I waited for her to come back in to sit on the potty.  After awhile, she actually pooped in the potty!  So after a VERY long day in and out of the bathroom and with only 4 accidents, we thought she did pretty well.

On Day 2, things looked a little brighter because she only had 1 accident.  However, we discovered that she didn't like to use public restrooms.  When I took her into a restroom during an errand, she sniffed the air and said, "Stinky.  I have nothing!"  And after that she refused to go into the public restroom.  Boo!  But at least she was kind enough to hold her pee in until we got home (since we kept our errand-running to a minimum).

On Day 3, we braved it and took her out on another "short" errand.  I use quotation marks because it was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but because we spent 80% of the time there taking her in and out of the bathroom, the errand took 90 minutes instead!  BUT the awesome thing was that she actually peed in her first public restroom!!  So that made it all worth it....I think.

On Day 4, I planned on taking her to a Gymboree class in the morning, but Evie had other things in mind.  She started the morning with, "I go poo-poo," so I took her to the potty and she didn't produce anything.  This went on for a looooooong time.  I couldn't take her out if she was on the verge of #2, but I didn't know when it would make it's appearance.  So we ended up just hanging out at home the entire morning.  The poop didn't even show up for 2 whole hours!  Oh well.  At least she got it done in the potty.

For the rest of the week she's been performing well.  She doesn't use a diaper for the pool and has been great. She has about 1 accident a day...usually when she's involved in something.  For example, she had an accident while she was watching TV.  On another day she had an accident while she was climbing at Gymboree class.  So it's understandable.  The great thing is that she's been pooping in the potty...which has been such a relief.  One day, she even pulled herself up onto the big potty by herself and went poop without me!  Impressive, right??  The cutest thing is that after she does anything in the potty, she is just so proud of herself.  She always says, "Show Daddy," and then she runs out with her hands high in the air and yells, "I did it!  I go potty!"

All in all, it's been a long, but rewarding week.  Evie's definitely a potty champ!  Yay, Evie!