Potty training breakthrough

What a busy weekend! Anyone who lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania, or at least anyone who read The Mercury last week saw that our weather service predicted rain through at least Sunday. Thank goodness that forecast was wrong. I consider Friday, Saturday and Sunday to be bonus days in life: Days that were supposed to be terrible but ended up being wonderful. Sometimes life brings you roses and when it does you should be thankful.

Besides the beautiful weather, we had a major, major, major breakthrough in our home. For the first time ever, Sophia poopied on the potty. Never in my whole life have I been so excited about a bowel movement.

It happened on Sunday. Here’s how it happened: For a couple of days, Sophia has been letting us know after she poops. So on Sunday when she started saying, “Poop, poop” and pointing to her diaper, I took her upstairs to change her diaper. When I checked, though, her diaper was dry so I sat her on the potty hoping we’d catch it. I was going to keep her on that toilet for as long as it took for her to go. She was not happy with this arrangement.

I’ve been worried about how this whole thing was going to work out since Sophia is not one to sit still for even a second. When we sit her on the potty she has to have a book or something to play with, otherwise toilet paper is all over the floor and she’s ready to stand up within 30 seconds. Anyway, on Sunday she sat on the potty and after about five minutes, she was desperate to stand up. So I admitted defeat and took her downstairs and put a diaper back on her. Right away she started with the “Poop, poop” again. This time I put her back on the potty and started reading her a book. As soon as I started reading, she started pooping. Hooray!!

We gave her chocolate and praised her like she just won a marathon. She didn’t sit on the potty for the rest of the day. On the advice of one of her teachers, we decided that we were going to really start potty training during the summer, besides, she only 21 months old and I’m not sure she’s entirely ready just yet.

So this morning rolls around and I’m sitting in Ryan’s room giving him a bottle and she starts crouching in the corner. She had that look on her face like she was trying to poop so I called my husband to take her to the bathroom. Hooray, she pooped again.

The funny thing is that she doesn’t seem to know what all the fuss is about. When we showed her the poop in the toilet, she wasn’t all that interested. It’s as though she doesn’t know what she did, or if she knows, she doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal. We tried to make a big deal about flushing the toilet, but she’s not interested in that. Oh, and she hasn’t actually peed in the toilet yet. Well, that’s not entirely true. She did once, but it was a complete accident and she wasn’t excited about that either.

I guess, like it or not, potty training should be underway. She seems to be ready, although less than enthusiastic about it..

By the way, my aunt purchased two of these potty training rewards after this comment was published, but Sophia doesn’t seem interested in them either. (Thank goodness she bought two because one doesn't work!) What is her deal? I have a feeling (fingers crossed) that her potty training is going to be pretty seamless, which means, I’m sure, that Ryan’s will be a terror.