Views From A Vet's Wife: Adventures in Potty Training!

Around 18 months old, I decided Caylee was ready to be potty trained. I went out and bought real underwear, a training potty and treats. She WAS NOT READY. It was a TERRIBLE battle. She was terrified of the potty and screamed like a crazy person if I even said the word "potty". I was desperate to make her not afraid of the potty so I gave her a sucker to suck on while she sat on it. (I had read that online somewhere.) It worked- kinda.... she sat and kept her sucker... she never went potty and she sat on the potty for over an hour with the sucker. Ok, so that was not what I wanted.... So... we quit.

About 20 months old, she saw the potty and was interested. We told her how fun it was and tried to get her excited. She went once and I thought we were all set to go. I happened to have skittles on hand and knew she'd love them. She got a treat and we began (or so I thought). She thought that just by sitting on the potty would result in a skittle. Nope. She actually had to go.... that led to even more screaming and confusion. She was not understanding the reward system. Matt wasn't really on board to help and was frustrated, she was frustrated, the whole weekend of trying was miserable. We quit again.

At almost 24 months Caylee is interested in the potty again. I really had no expectations, but let her go anyways. All afternoon she wanted to use the potty. I kept letting her, but also putting her diaper back on (thinking it wouldn't last). All she wanted for going was a fruit snack! I thought that was funny because we had been giving her fruit snacks as snacks anyways, she didn't even have to do anything. Suddenly, she felt she had to go potty to get one... weird, but whatever works! The next day I decided to keep trying... she was loving it! I got brave and put real underwear on... only 1 accident and it was because I didn't make her take a potty break. By the time Matt came home we had been through 4 fruit snack packs! Did you know that each pack averages 8-10 fruit snacks (I didn't count this until after)... that's somewhere between 32 and 40 times she went potty (actually went) that day! Wow. I cut them in 4ths for the next day.

**Sidenote**: She did go that many times, but it was such a tiny amount each time. We've since gotten better at going all at once and spacing out our bathroom time. It was EXHAUSTING though!

We stayed home all day on Friday and she did GREAT! Saturday we braved the gym and their nursery. She made it all the way until about 15 minutes before I was to pick her up (they forgot to remind her). We came home and started over with new Minnie underwear and more Veggietale fruit snacks.... It was such a nice day and Matt wanted to get out. We braved a festival, the park AND dinner.... she stayed dry (and clean)!

**Sidenote**: We did bring the little potty with us because those places didn't have anywhere for her to go (that we thought would be clean enough for a kid training). I swore I'd never do that, but it's so much better... especially when we live far away from everything.

Anyways... we're now on day 5 and she's been doing great. I have not braved the underwear at night, or nap time, but that'll come. We're just working on our days and she's really loving it. I added stickers every 15-30 min for her being dry and she loves that too. Anything to keep her memory going and to keep her happy going!

Here are some weekend pics!