Potty Time!!

So, those of you who know me well know that my daughter, Emma, is not yet potty trained. She will be four years old on September 20. My oldest daughter, Hannah, was potty trained soon after she turned two and it was so easy! Well, all children are different, and Emma has not been so easy! We started "introducing" her to the potty when she turned two. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. She was perfectly content in diapers and was not even willing to entertain the idea that she would go pee pee in the potty. So, we determined that she "wasn't ready" and decided to wait and try again later. Well, we have tried, and tried, and tried and her position has not changed....until NOW!

Up until now we have tried every trick in the book. I took her to the store and let her pick out her own underwear (she chose Minnie Mouse and Ni Hao Kai Lan). That didn't work. We offered her M&Ms (this came highly recommended by many parents). That didn't work. I took her to the toy store and let her pick out anything she wanted. She chose a baby doll with all the accessories. I took it home and put it in the window sill across from the toilet and told her once she was going potty in the toilet, she could have the baby doll. Well, after 3 or 4 days she declared that she didn't want the baby doll anymore. Most recently, I have tried to use activities to coerce her into submission. She is starting preschool at the end of the month, wants to take dance, and will be going into Cubbies at church. The caregivers at all of these places will expect her to be potty trained and may not accept her if she's not. Well, she reasoned that she would just stay with Nana at Little Sprouts, didn't want to take dance anymore, and could stay in Puggles.

I could go on and on about the issues we've had around potty training (and some of you have heard me do so), but to make a long story short....we have finally had success!!!

Since she is starting preschool this month, I decided to take a few days off work and stay home with her for one last ditch effort. I determined that there would be NO MORE DIAPERS. She has to know that they are no longer an option. If she has an accident, she can change her clothes and clean up the mess. Yesterday was the beginning of the "potty training boot camp" and Emma did great!!! The morning was rough. She cried A LOT and fought tooth and nail to keep a diaper on and did NOT want to sit on the potty. I made up stories, sang songs, even painted her toe nails to keep her occupied. I have thought for a long time that if she could just experience going pee pee in the potty one time, that would be a real breakthrough and it would be much easier after that.  Well, FINALLY, it happened!  It wasn't a pleasant experience for either of us, but she did pee pee in the potty.  We made a huge deal of it, there were lots of hugs and kisses, and calls to Daddy and Nana, but she was very upset.  I truely believe that she was mad at herself for giving in.  However, since then she has had a lot better attitude.  There have been a couple of accidents, but there have been no diapers (even when we went out) and accidents have been few and fairly minor.  I've got three more days to work with her and I hope and pray that she will be fully potty trained very soon!