Potty Party!

We have survived the "potty party" at our house, relatively intact. I will put more details in my mom blog at some point, if you are so inclined - though I can't believe you are.

I attended a potty training class through Parents as Teachers last spring, then sought the advice of several friends, then just generally jumped right in - kind of out-of-character for me. I wasn't ready at all, but our daycare teachers were kindly hinting that Ellen was pretty much potty trained at school, so I figured we better get on board.

As an aside, Ellen has developed this adorable habit of *whispering* things she really wants, i.e.
"I want to go to *Peachwave* (our fro-yo place)
"Can I watch a *show*?"
"Can I play *Baby Painter* on your 'puter?" (our new iPad - hip, hip, hooray!)

So, fast forward, and I was talking up our special Saturday Potty Party for about a week in advance, and on Monday morning Ellen woke up from her nap and groggily said, "Can I get *underpants* now??" We made the pilgrimage to Target and bought all manner of small undies with lots of Dora, Hello Kitty and Toy Story characters. Ellen also pointed at the bras and said, "I want one of those". I told her those were for bigger girls, and she replied, "I want a smaller one of those when I get bigger". I told Erik that story and he promptly fell over and died.

I asked Ellen what kind of surprise she would like at the end of her Potty Party and she said chocolate cake with sprinkles. OK. Done. She asked and asked and asked when the potty party was coming and I had to keep telling her, 3 more days of school, 2 more days of school, 1 more day of school ...

And. Then we were there.

If a toddler had a bar, this is what it would look like.

We pushed fluids of all sorts and any kind of salty snack you could imagine. These things don't normally live in our home, so it was pretty much nirvana. (We are still coming down from the sugar high, if you must know).

There were rewards, big and small. I didn't want it to be a candy fest, so I mixed treats with toys for the successful potty reward and was pleasantly surprised that Ells mostly chose chalk and Playdoh. (That girl LOVES her chalk. It's like crack around here).

There was a LOT of one-on-one attention for all of Saturday, and really most of Sunday. We got pretty creative with our activities ... (and, thank the Lord for the iPad. Perfect timing!)

Can you guess what the reward was for dry undies?

Here is Ells using her sign language for "more" chocolate cake (thanks to her recent exposure to our younger friends in Texas ...)

I would say, all in all, that we have had good success. Minimal accidents, though the pooping on the potty will need some more work. She was basically in the same clothes all 3 days at school this week when we picked her up, so hooray for that! I told Ellen that I was so proud of her for using the potty at school all week ...

"Thanks, Mom." she says ...

Growing up so fast.