Caroline has embarked on the great journey called potty training.
I am always going to remember the sight from just a few minutes ago of Caroline sitting on her little to-scale potty chair, reading a book on making in the potty that Kathleen bought from the local Borders. It's like one of those pictures of a guy looking at a painting of him looking at a painting of him looking at a painting etc.
The result of her very first endeavor? Roughly a tablespoon worth of pee (no, I didn't measure it, you sickos) that she then dumped in the toilet and flushed her very self. And right now she's sporting her immediate reward: Her very own Dora the Explorer pull up diaper.
I'm figuring she's going to go straight from this to curing cancer.
PAD
Posted by Peter David at August 18, 2005 08:34 PM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingI understand that afterwards she was heard to say,
"W(h)EEEEEEE!"
TWL
Dora, huh? we're using select episodes of Superman TAS as a reward for my son...
P,
(a bit ironic under the circumstances, dontcha think?)
I'm currently going through the same with my almost-two-year-old daughter, so I know how you feel. We didn't measure the "output" in any way, but did get part of the proceedings on tape (so both Grandmas can experience it as well).
Good Luck and Godspeed with this Big New Step in Caroline's development.
Lookin' forward to hearing about the first BM (not!)
:-)
r
While it's a big leap from being successfully potty trained to curing The Big C, wish Caroline luck in her pre-K medical studies for me.
raf,
You TAPED that? Wow. Excellent leverage for your daughter's teenage years. Threaten to show her friends. My dad still uses my tape of me singing the "Rainbow Brite" and "Spider-Man" theme songs from 20 years ago as blackmail.
Which may explain some of my parental issues. :)
lol -
brilliant - congratulations to you and the wee one (pun not intended but it's out there now isn't it?).
Before you embarass your children any further, just remember that they will choose your nursing home.
Excellent leverage for your daughter's teenage years.
Especially if she plans, during those teenage years, to get pissed in an entirely different fashion. :)
My wife and I recently finished our son's training, and getting them to pee was definately the easy part. I hope that Caroline's first experience is representative of those to come, but kids certainly like to throw you for a loop. I'm also glad to see that other parents have bribed their little ones as well - we're currently on suckers, but my favorite was the Justice League stickers (he knows all the big names now!).
I am betting your other daughters are grateful that there weren't blogs when they were being potty trained ;)
At least you are an experienced parent which should help a lot.
Our daughter is nearly three and we started potty training about a month ago. The result has been extremely mixed, ranging from success to refusals to even get near the potty. The last two weeks it got more and more difficult and therefore I gave it a rest for a week because distressing her won`t do any good.
Next week I will try again and I am not looking forward to it. But how is she supposed to learn if I don`t keep trying?
Man, you guys are a helluva lot nicer to your kids than I was. Our reward was "Whiz in the toilet, and you don't have to wear diapers anymore." It actually worked really, really well. It's nowadays that I need to use the carrot and the stick (or, in this case, Legos, comic books and no tv).
granted, you can't do this with girls, but with my son, my ex- and I would put Cheerios in the toliet and he could play "Sink the battleship."
Tom: LOL - easily one of the funniest Tiny Toons ever...
Didn't you know that cancer has been cured? It is just that the government won't let anyone know about it. Another think that you can blame on the Bush government. ;-)
On another note, have fun because in a decade and a half she will be DATING! hehehe. later
The fact that my wife's web store would be happy to sell you more potty training books notwithstanding, there's only one way to make potty training stick: Stop using disposable diapers.
Frankly, too many toddlers find modern disposalbe diapers so comfortable, that wetting them is no inconvenience.
Yes, there will be 'accidents' which will be a pain to clean up, but it will cease quickly. I wouldn't attempt this before the child is physically and mentally ready and practiced, but it's the way to 'seal the deal'.
I'm not one of the radical haters of disposables -- "environment, shmenvironment" I say on this issue -- but if they mess up 'big kid' underwear, they'll stop.
Joel-
We have her in the pull ups for girls with the wetness band that she feels the wet when she pees. So far we have had once on the floor of the bathroom, a couple of times in the potty (sometimes a dribble and sometimes more) and 2 pull-ups soiled along with her nap diaper.
I figure that this is day 2 of this and I;ll keep at it.
Kath
I'll never forget the high-pitched shriek of delight from my oldest when she successfully went poop in the potty chair for the very first time.
Our daughter is 19 months old and we started with the potty training. She doesn't mind sitting on it but I think she doesn't quite grasp that you are supposed to "pee and poop" in it like her book tells her to. We even try making noises like "Sssss!" hoping that she'll associate it with pee.
We understand that 19 months is just way too early for some kids and we are willing to wait until she is ready. I wish Caroline luck! :)
I came to see what newsworthy pieces of information had been posted on the PAD blog...
But all I found were a bunch of people talking crap.
RLR
When our daughter did pee into the potty for the first time she looked at me with delight and said "A good start". I said, "A very good start" and she was really pleased with herself.
Unfortunately there were a few times when she told me proudly that she had peed - but in her nappy. Most of the time getting her potty trained is a very frustrating business.
From what I heard and read, with nearly three she should be ready.
Reading all these comments make me kinda look forward to when my not-yet-newborn son gets to be that age. This is our first. Everyone has been giving some real good advice. I'll have to bookmark these comments for the next two years. ;)
> We have her in the pull ups for girls
> with the wetness band that she feels
> the wet when she pees.
What a country!
Cool. Didn't know they had those. I'd consider that useful info... but I have no more kids to potty train... and it will hopefully be a long while 'til I'm grampa.
To turn this slightly away from potty talk, while staying slightly on topic, remember the Clinton/Dole MTV interviews? Well, Clinton was asked, "Boxers or Briefs." I believe his answer was boxers. Dole's answer? "Depends"