I’m scared to blog about this since last time was such a disaster, but potty-training is… going much better than I expected.

Excuse me while I pause to look around and make sure no anvils are about to fall out of the sky and land on my head.

Tuesday night, I got the ball rolling by telling Catie that she was going to start using the potty in the morning. She’s a cautious kid, and I thought she might need some warning time to process it and prepare. I think it helped. I also decided to use Pull-Ups this time instead of just going cold turkey to big-girl panties.

Yesterday (day 1) was very hit-or-miss. She had a couple of successful pees in the potty, but she also peed in her Pull-Ups a lot. But I was happy with the progress that she made, since we were basically starting from scratch. Every time she peed on the potty, I cheered and applauded her, and gave her lots of hugs & kisses, and rewarded her with a York peppermint patty (her favorite treat). (And yes, that means that this morning I gave her chocolate before breakfast. I know, I’m the worst mother ever. Whatever, I was proud of her.)

(Also, for the record, the little training potty? Does not work for her. She hates it. Maybe because she remembers the last potty-training attempt. So we have a Dora potty seat and put it on the regular toilet for her to use. She likes it because it’s the same “big potty” that Mommy uses. And I have to say, I much prefer just flushing & not having to clean out the little pot.)

Today has been a lot better. She’s peed in the potty four times already, and has only had one accident. She’s pooped in her Pull-Up a few times – which, ok yes, the idea is to eventually get her to poop on the potty too, but after her 6-day poop strike that happened last time? I’m just happy that she’s still going & not holding it in. Baby steps, right?

Also, I told her that if she can learn how to pee and poop in the potty, and if she can do it every time without accidents by the time we move into the new house, then when we move, I’ll get her a Thomas the Tank Engine table just like the one at the toy store. And we can put it in her new playroom. I think that motivation might help her a lot. (I’ve seen about 25 train tables for sale on craigslist. I was thinking about getting her one after we move anyway, now I just have a way to use it as a bribe.)

So, yeah. I think we’re getting there. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get her 100% potty-trained, but at least she’s making progress and I can safely say that it’s a thousand times better than last time.