Isa's Mom

We started using pull-ups today. I called them her underwear, just like mine! I even showed her my own to see. She actually told someone in Public that mommy was wearing purple underwear. How cute! (and a bit embarrassing.) **** Pull-Ups most of the day. Kinsey and fam came over for a playdate. It was great for Isa to see Kinsey get applauded for keeping her “underwear” dry! Later in the day Isa said, “Dry?” while holding onto her pull-ups! We celebrated like it was her 16th birthday! **** Didn’t mention potty today. I’m trying to hold back until we start for real next week! We removed the crib/toddler bed from her room today! She’s now napping in her big girl twin bed!!! I need to put a mat under the sheet so the mattress doesn’t get wet if she has a potty accident in the future! **** Got the pee pee doll from Megan today! Can’t wait to use it in a couple of weeks! I think Isa will LOVE it! **** Just before I was going to get her in the shower, she stood bare bottomed on the floor mat. I looked over and noticed she was peeing – on the floor mat!! I grabbed her, put her on the toilet and said that now she can go pee pee in the potty! She did!!! She was so excited!!! After much applause, I put her in the shower and began to bathe her. I stepped away – getting her towel – for no more than 20 seconds. When I returned, to a non-typical quiet Isa, I saw three lumps of poo poo on the tub floor! Let’s just say that for the rest of the day each time I would bring up my excitement about how she went pee pee in the potty, she would quickly respond saying, “poo poo in the shower!” Too funny! **** Oma (a doll) used the potty today, and then it was Isa’s turn! She sat on it for no more than a minute, checking every 5 seconds to see if there was any pee-pee. Isa even wanted Oma to wear underwear (Pull-Ups). It was great! She is using her dollhouse potty to model how the little figurines can go potty! **** Pretty uneventful. She didn’t have much interest in the potty today. I didn’t push it. **** Her diaper/pull-up was super wet this morning. I’m wondering if she’s pee-ing throughout the night or when she wakes up. I think I’ll soon need to start asking (or as my mom would say making) her go potty 1st thing. It’s a habit she’ll need to learn. Can’t wait to have to wake up even earlier! **** She fell asleep last night just after having a big glass of milk…we were at dinner and a glass of “leche” is what sort of did the trick to keep her in her seat! Anyway, I didn’t change her diaper/night time pull–up before bed. When she came half asleep into my room this AM I felt her bottom and she was soaked through! I changed her pull up and then, after she was dry, had her join us in bed for a few more hours of shut eye. Later we were not so pleasantly surprised to find a huge wet spot on her bed….time to change the sheets. **** Headed to the pool today. I nearly forgot her Little Swimmer pool diapers. I only have 2 left – more motivation to get her potty trained before the real swimming season! **** Nothing too exciting for most of the day. She didn’t have much of a nap so I had us lay low this afternoon. No need to bring a tired, cranky toddler to the stores! Well, we certainly had some potty excitement tonight! She absolutely randomly pulled off her diaper and said she wanted to go potty. She sat on her potty and proceeded to pee!!! I can’t believe it. This was so unexpected!! We emptied the pee in the toilet, she flushed and we washed her hands! No candies, stickers or other trinkets were used to lure her! Wow!!! **** Isa spent the greater part of the day at Nana and Lolo’s today. Nana laughed telling me how Isa took care of her babies, changing their diaper, wanting to put cream on (diaper cream) and even suggesting that they need to use the potty. I really am excited to use the potty doll soon. I think it’s exactly what she needs! **** Today was a typical school then Nana’s day. Unfortunately, just after Tom got home from work Isa threw up. I felt so bad. It was horrible and everywhere. I gave her a good bath and got her to sleep. I’m thinking she has the virus that seems to be going around. **** With upset stomach last night, I decided to lay low today. I’m not bringing up the potty or anything. I prefer her not having diarrhea all over the little plastic potty! **** She seems to be feeling a little better today. We got a lot done around the house and then headed to the Asian Festival. We had a great time. At bath time she insisted she needed to go potty. I was ecstatic and put her up on the toilet. We waited, and waited and no pee pee. She was so funny, cupping her ear to listen for the pee pee. **** We headed to church, brunch and then the carnival on the Mile in Coral Gables today. Isa had a blast, especially on the enormous princess bounce house at the carnival. Moments like today make me a bit relieved that she’s still in diapers. What a mess it would have been if in the middle of church, brunch or the festival Isa needs to go potty. What would I do? Where would I take her?? **** I finally let her drink milk today. She had 2 cups in the morning but sure enough her diarrhea was back. I’m holding back on the milk tomorrow and the potty today. **** Her tummy problems have gotten a little better. I asked her a few times if she needed to go potty and she clearly had no interest – seemingly getting annoyed at me asking her! (Can’t wait for the teenage years!) **** We did have some potty times today! Oma (her doll) went potty and then Isa sat on the potty too! Later in the day, although she never actually peed in the toilet, she did pull down her pull-ups on her own!!! Yeah! Milestone reached!

I conquered a hurdle today! I faced the mall with Isa needing to go to the potty! My parents and I went to the stores for a while and I had Isa in a Pull-Ups training pant. I was hesitant, but did ask her if she needed to go potty throughout our time there. I guess I was hesitant because I was “afraid” of the answer. What would I do if she said yes? Well, she did! Mami and I brought her to the 1st restroom we found and it was a gift from up above! The family restroom had a kiddie stall with a little toilet and sink. It was perfect! She didn’t go but I got over my fear. An hour or so later she said she needed to go and we found another bathroom. Unfortunately this one wasn’t a kiddie one. She sat on the big toilet and I cringed and she grabbed onto the public toilet. No pee pee. She washed her hands thoroughly and I was really relived that we had faced the battle of finding and sitting on public toilets with Isa. Thankfully and I guess surprisingly she kept her underwear (Pull-Ups training pants) dry throughout the entire trip! I think we’re getting somewhere!

I asked her this morning if she wanted to use the potty. She, with tremendous gusto, said NO! We put on her "underwear" before heading to school, and again I asked her to go to the potty and I received the same response. During our car ride to school, I told her then when she is at school and needs to go potty, she can quickly ask Ms. Stephanie or Ms. Ashley and she'll get to use the potty there. She responded, "Toilet mommy, toilet school." Let's see what happens! Well she never did end up making it to the potty or should I say toilet at school. Just a wet Pull-Ups training pant. **** Ah!!!! So much relief today! Isa has been so anti-potty lately. She kicks it and refuses to ever sit on there. Enter Megan and Kinsey! My good friend, Megan, and her 2 year old daughter, Kinsey, came to the rescue today! Kinsey is about 8 weeks ahead of Isa in potty training. I knew that if Isa saw her best buddy using the potty today, there would be a chance that she would change her sentiments on the poor little toilet! Kinsey came over for a playdate and within the 1st hour Megan had her sitting on Isa's potty going pee pee! We, and especially Isa, were SOOOO excited for Kinsey. We made such a show about it! As soon as Kinsey got up, Isa demanded that it was her turn! I also spent quite a bit of time picking Megan's brain today about potty training. What I'm looking for is what to and what not to do. 1st off Megan brought me the pee pee doll! I'm so excited. This is the dolly that she and her siblings have used to potty training. The doll comes with her own bottle and potty. Next week Isa will meet the dolly, feed her water from the bottle and teach her how to use the potty. I can't wait. Megan also suggested that I try to reward Isa more often for dry underwear rather than just pee pee in the potty. She also mentioned that I may want to think about rewarding Isa with yummy drinks so to encourage future pee pee on the day I do the intense training with the doll. Great idea! **** So my mom has been encouraging me to get Isa to sit and stay on the potty for an extended period of time. This is in the hopes that if she sits there long enough, she'll pee, and be happy! Well, this morning I got her to sit, I brought her breakfast , and put plenty of toys within reach…instead of breakfast in bed, she had breakfast on the potty. Ha ha! After about 10 minutes of her morning potty sitting experience, I decided to hit the potty myself. She was not in my line of sight for no more than 5 minutes when I began hearing her sort of whine or something. I grew concerned and quickly got up and headed to the family room. Well, I don't think I was expecting to find Isa standing up, about 2 feet away from her potty saying, "Poo floor!" She had apparently stood up and pooped in not 1, not 2, but in 5 different areas of the area rug in the family room! She seemed so upset. I, obviously, cleaned up the poo poo and told her how next time she needs to sit on the potty when she needs to go poo poo, just like Mommy. She really seemed to be embarrassed with what had happened. I think that in a way it was a positive potty training thing; it was good for her to feel that poo-pooing on the floor isn't right. **** Today I went out to purchase some more rewards for the big potty training day next week! I have tons of farm animals, stickers, books and more. All I have left to get is the sugary drink and I was thinking of getting popsicles. I don't think she has ever had one and I figured since it's frozen "juice" it will help promote more pee-pee. **** She sat on her potty this morning during breakfast time. Non eventful (no pee pee) but she did sit. After a morning of errands, with her underwear on, we came back home to see that her underwear was still dry!! At that point of excitement I tried to get her to sit on the potty before nap time. She wanted nothing to do with it. I think she was already very tired. A few hours later she woke up from her nap. I could quickly see that her underwear had remained dry for the 2 hour nap time. Excitingly I had her sit on the potty, explaining that mommy always goes potty right after she wakes up. Meanwhile I went into the kitchen to get her leche con chocolate (chocolate milk) ready. When I returned I noticed that her potty seat appeared to have some water drops. Confused, I took a closer look and saw that she had gone pee pee!! I was floored. She had actually gone pee pee in the potty!!! Woo Hoo! Dances and parties were in ordered. We emptied the pee pee in the toilet, wiped with toilet paper and flushed! Tomorrow is the big day! **** So today was the BIG DAY! We spent nearly the entire morning on the floor in front of the bathroom with her potty, the potty doll, the potty doll's potty, and TONS of incentives! It actually went much better than I had expected. She LOVED feeding the dolly and having the dolly go pee pee. I gave Isa about a dozen "shots" of soda for keeping her own pants dry. It worked in making her have to pee all morning. The downside was that she peed in her underwear rather than the potty. I was exhausted by the end of the morning but she did get the routine of pee pee after eating/drinking in place. **** So I'm still exhausted! I approached today positively. We spent the better part of the morning outside painting and waiting for pee pee to come out ! We had tons of accidents but lots of success too! It is just so much more manageable outside than inside.

She spent the afternoon at Nana and Lolo's today. My mom seemed super exhausted when I picked her up. It is more tiring to watch Isa when you're potty training than when you're not. My mom claims that she was able to get Isa to sit and pee on the potty. That's great but what I'm really hoping to get is Isa telling us that she needs to go potty not us forcing her to sit there and wait for pee pee. **** Today was a GREAT poo poo day! That's a good thing! She went poo poo in her toilet after telling me that poop was going to come out! I've never been so happy to see poop in a toilet! Also, I would like to add that we dealt with a long night tonight after she again didn't want to go to sleep. However, this time she actually went potty after she demanded to go to the bathroom when we were trying to get her to fall asleep! **** So the morning started off really well. She came into my room this morning and the 1st thing she said was, "Pee pee potty now." I quickly got her to the bathroom and sat her on the toilet. And waited. And waited. No pee pee ever came, but I am so happy that she is making it part of her routine to go sit on the potty when she wakes up. Later in the day she went pee pee in the potty 75% of the time. She also poo poo'd in the potty twice! She had one accident in cotton underwear and went pee pee in her Pull-Ups training pant when we were at the stores. **** After what I thought was a really good potty day yesterday, I decided to be a little adventurous and send her to school in regular cotton underwear, with tons of changes of clothes just in case! I figured that since I was going to be there for the Easter party for most of the morning, why not. When we got to school I had her immediately sit on the toilet. No pee pee. Just when I was about to leave, I heard "Oh no, what happened?" The clear sign that she went pee pee. I looked over and there was pee pee all over her and the little chair she was sitting at. Throughout the rest of the day she wet her cotton underwear two more times. Finally I gave up and threw on the Pull-Ups pants. I think I'm going to try cotton underwear WITH Pull-Ups pants next week. I learned from a friend to have them wear Pull-Ups training pants on top of cotton underwear. That way they fell the discomfort even more of going pee pee in their pants, but at the same time they aren't making a mess all over. **** Well Megan came to the rescue today. I felt Isa needed to see again how Kinsey goes potty on her own, and I was also excited to show Megan how well Isa was doing. After a long early morning waiting for her to get her morning pee pee in the potty, Megan and Kinsey arrived. I was so excited to see and learn from Megan that Kinsey is now solely using cotton underwear, except for bedtime! What a great light at the end of the tunnel! Well Isa didn't show off her potty skills so well. She has a little bit of a cold and seemed exhausted all morning. At least that's the excuse I'm giving for her poo poo underwear and pee pee underwear she had while our visitors were here. Thankfully, I felt some reassurance when we were climbing the stairs to go up for her nap, she quickly, and quite adamantly, told me that she needed to go pee pee in the toilet. I ran, as best my rotten knee will let me, up the stairs and helped her to her toilet where the beautiful sound of her going pee pee filled the bathroom in seconds! **** We're on a roll! For all but one time going pee pee in her Pull-Ups pant, she used the potty all day today!! We're getting somewhere! I'm not giving up!