Potty Mouth. Jk, just lots of talk about PT this post...

We are finally making some progress with potty training. SOME. Not a lot but if you step back and look at the week as a whole, we've come leaps and bounds!

We realized last night that it is probably not a good thing that we are getting upset/frustrated with her when she poops in her panties. So yuck but that's the way it goes. We reminded ourselves that she is SO just learning and that we up and changed ALL the rules on her and then expected her to just "get it" immediately. A week and a half ago, it was totally A-OK to poop and pee whenever, wherever. Then we tell her she must sit on the potty/toilet and go there. On command. Or else.

Really though, in all seriousness- she has been wearing pull ups the past two days because it just makes things so much less messy. And she goes "tinkle" -as we call it- nearly every time we put her on the toilet. We just have to remember our jobs here.

1. Put her on the potty every 1/2 hour to hour

2. Tell, don't ask if she wants to use the potty

3. Rewards! Praise! Excitement! when she does successfully go on the potty.

4. No getting upset/mad/disappointed when she poops/pees somewhere other than the potty. Even when she was JUST sitting on the potty.... Just be clear and calm about what we DO want and have her help clean up the mess.

5. Remember that she uses 1-2 diapers/pull ups in a 24 hour period now, instead of 4.

Also, I think she likes the attention, the one-on-one attention she gets when she's sitting on the potty. She likes us to read books to her:)

So I guess my one weeks worth of "experience" has helped me to learn that persistence, positive action/thinking and patience will win the race here.

We are here..just trying to get organized again.

We are here..just trying to get organized again. I mean we are in Maryland.
Our stuff was everywhere after we got home. Lia (and Justin) had left our place super clean, organized and complete with a loaf of homemade bread! Then we walked in with all our bags of clothing and just junk. And papers. I hate hate hate all the papers everywhere! I have a semi-large "to file" pile right now, but at least they are in a pile and the recycle ones are in the blue bin.
Two of my older sisters (I have 3 older sisters:) are so awesome to give me clothing that their girls, and now boys, have grown out of for my kids. It saves us so much money, but bringing home all the extra clothing is a challenge sometimes. Especially now that the airlines only allow one free bag. But there are ways to get it all on board. We bought two huge duffel bags, which are very light weight themselves. Super cheap-o ones from Smiths or something. Then we stuff and stuff and stuff all our clothing, shoes, clothing, diapers, bibs, blankies, etc, you get the idea, into the bags and we end up with 4 bags to be checked total. You are allowed to check one "baby" item for an "infant in arms." We choose a bag full of his clothes:)
Then I gate-check the stroller and car seat, Naomi's seat comes on the plane. Then each ticked passenger is allowed one carry-on luggage (more clothes and stuff) and one personal item. We end up with two-three carry-on items and one personal item that is my diaper bag. It's a lot of stuff.
So here we are, 3 days later and finally feeling sane. Everything is in it's place. Almost everything...my clothing needs some better organization, but whatever.
And to help us feel so much more calm, we are potty training Naomi. FUN!
Hah. NOT fun at all. Well, that's a lie too. It's kind of fun to see her be proud of herself and she's funny sometimes in the process.
But cleaning up "it was an accident, I didn't mean to"s is really not fun. We had a lot of accidents today.
BUT we had one big success. We waited and waited and tried all day to get her to poop on the potty and she wasn't about to. So after she went pee in her "pantsies" again I just left her bare bummed. She ran into the bathroom a little while later and announced, "Mom, I'm going potty!" I peeked in at her and told her "Great! Let me know when you're done." I walked back into the bathroom about 1 minute later and she was standing with about 10 wet wipes pulled (all still connected together:) out of the pack and was wiping herself. She had indeed "gone potty" and it was a bit messy..... lots messy. But she did it, all by herself! So we are slowly getting there I think.
I wasn't' about to tackle this whole potty training thing just yet. I'm too lazy. But Zach is a bit more motivated about the whole thing and it can't just be him on potty patrol, it takes both of us, and we still have accidents. But anyway, I wasn't going to even try until she was good and ready, I mean totally ready age 3+ and begging me for underwear.
But then Zach brought in her little plastic potty and she went bonkers. She was so excited that she announced "I'm not wearing diapers anymore, I'm not, I'm wearing pantsies!"
Ooooohkay I though, we'll try it out. So here we are, 3 days later and I think we're making progress. Funniest part about it is that she wants nothing to do with that little potty. She uses the "big person" potty. Fine, that's one less thing to transition to.
So, for other things. James and Naomi have been sharing a room since we got back Saturday. Nights have been pretty good. Really good I would actually say. I've been putting James down first while Zach reads to Naomi and then she goes to bed as soon as he's in his crib. She has strict instructions to "be quiet and use soft voices." She likes to talk herself to sleep a little.
He has woken up randomly and cried here and there and she hasn't responded except for this morning at about 5:30 a.m. But Naomi went back to sleep immediately so no biggie. I'm hoping this is going to be as easy as it seems right now. It's nice to have our own room, and we've had our own room the whole time in Utah. I don't really feel like sharing again:)
Speaking of, it's so time for bed for me.

I'm asking for advice

Potty training.

I'm not sure I'm up to the task.

Yesterday Naomi and I made a "potty chart" to put stickers on when she used the potty. She LOVES sitting on her potty. But she has actually gone pee or pooped on it maybe 5 times. Maybe.

Today I asked her/put her on the potty about every 20-30 minutes and she never was able to go. But the minute her pull-ups were back up, she would wet them or poop. THEN she wanted to go and sit on the potty. Arrrgh.

She has all the signs for potty readiness, she wants to go on the potty, she pulls down her pants on her own and sits there but never can/will go.

I don't really get it. There has got to be something I am missing here.

And we keep it fun too, if she doesn't want to, no big deal. We sing songs or read a book while she sits there too. She gets an m&m if she actually goes. She really, really, really wants to wear underwear- not diapers or pull ups.

But she won't go on the potty.

I going to keep trying for a few more days. If this keeps up though I'm going to take it as she's just not ready. But then will I be messing her up and then she'll never want to potty train???

I need advice all you veteran potty training moms!!!

In other stuff, we went to a really great park nearby, called Latta Park. It has a Sprayground. It's a fence enclosed cement area with fountains of water all over for the kiddies to run around in. Naomi really loved it. In fact she asked to go back today, after naps:)

And last Saturday Zach and I took the kids to another park to play then out for pizza. It was a really fun evening out. I put James in the baby swing and he loved it! He's way too small for it but he enjoyed his 2 minutes of gentle swinging. Naomi loves playing with Zach on the playground, it's cute to watch her with him.