POTTY TRAINING - DAY 1

A little note:
Hello there! I am adding this note at the beginning to let you know- this week is going to be all about Potty Training.  As I mentioned in a previous post you won't see any pictures of my little girl on the potty or any shots of the potty itself.  BUT, I am going to go into detail about each day because I want to be able to remember what I did for myself.  If you are starting to think about potty training yourself, then great! I hope these posts are helpful.  If you don't really care...check back on Friday for Five on Friday.  

Kenny went out of town for a long weekend and I didn't really have any plans. I had been trying to figure out when I was going to potty train Elle because it is never really convenient. I wanted a good 2-3 day span of being able to not leave the house. So this was as good of a time as any.

As far as my technique, I didn't really do a whole lot of research.  I never read a book or anything.  I would occasionally read blog posts on the subject and some things on Pinterest and then I would read things on Twitter and hear from friends.  I guess along the way I collected the things that I thought would work for us and put this plan together. I am going all in. I barely want to put a Pull Up on her for night time but have read that I need to because it is a physical thing and not a behavioral thing. I may be eating my words by the end of these posts.  But here it goes.

Day 1
It is a Thursday so Elle has been at school.  Official potty training starts Friday morning when she wakes up so after I leave the gym I go to Walmart to get some groceries so we don't run out of anything while we are stuck at home along with some other necessities for PT. I chose to do this trip without her so we can make the other trip all about her

M&Ms
Dum Dum suckers
Canisters for M&Ms and suckers
Toddler Potty - that is now hidden in the closet.  I plan to train Elle on a normal potty with a stool and a insert.  This potty is Plan B.
Paper towels
Resolve carpet cleaner
Sugar cookie mix and decorating supplies - to entertain us while we are stuck inside
Night Time Pull Ups
A new toy - that she will not even know about until the end of the weekend.  She will get it regardless of whether she ends up trained or not.

I had already purchased a stool and a potty insert and a potty book on Amazon a few months back.

When I get home I hide almost all of this stuff.  I set up the stool and the potty insert and then put the book on her table where we read books.

When she gets home from school we do our normal routine and then before nap time I sit down and read her the potty book when I would normally just put her down.  We read the book and then I tell her that after she wakes up she and I are going to make a really fun and special trip to the store to pick out her very own big girl underwear so she can learn to go on the potty.  We have also been telling her for the last few days that she was going to learn how to potty so she is really excited about the trip.

When she wakes up, we continue lots of PT talk and then head to the store.  She wants to take her Princess Potty book with her.

We get to the store and I talk up picking out her undies big time.  She is thrilled with all the very tacky choices.  She chose princess ones.  Once she is training I will be covering these up with bloomers or she will wear bloomers as her undies.  Personal preference.

Thinking about it all really hard.

Then I take her for some pre-PT ice cream which she was so excited about but ate all of two bites.  

Ice cream!

When we get home I throw the newly acquired undies in the washing machine and repeat again that when she wakes up we will change clothes on and put on a pair and then it is back to playing.

During our nighttime routine I read the Princess Potty book again and we talk about how she is going to try out the potty in the morning when we wake up.  At this point I am just kind of retelling her everything we have already talked about.  She is really excited and energetic about it.  I have not mentioned any kind of reward system at this point.  I want her to go first and then have the rewards (the M&M's for 1 and the Dum Dums for 2 TMI sorry) be a surprise.

I am writing this at the end of day one so our journey has barely begun.  I might look back on this and laugh.  We will see.

A big pile of new girl undies all ready for the next day!