I Need To Go Potty....

It's been 3 weeks since we started potty training Ella and she has done awesome!  Day 1 was all accidents except one and that one was actually an accident (if you know what I mean)!!!!  I feel like the same thing happened with Adda and we were totally regretting starting trainging.  I actually got some advice from a friend (who I consider a super mom) that night.  After reading her pointers I realized that we were on the right track and just needed to stick to it HARD for one week and then re evaluate it all. 

We had a rule that if Ella was on the potty then the iPad and Kindle could be turned on.  Otherwise they were off until the next visit!

Day 2 she had two accidents.  Day 3 she had one accident.  The next 3 days she had NO accidents and a dry diaper at nap and that morning!  I totally thought she was trained and done!  Not so much!  Day 7 the %#*^ hit the fan! Or more like, the %#*^ would not hit the toilet!  She could not figure out how to sit and poop!  She was an expert at standing and doing the deed, but as soon as she sat it was long gone!  Every time she stood up off the pot shortly after she would accidentally leave us a "nugget" in her undies.  She would come to us and say "I got a little nugget.  It goes in the potty!"  So we would go put her on the potty and leave her there for a bit to get the rest of that "nugget" out and in the potty!  She couldn't figure it out.  We continued to discover "nuggets" for the next few days and then she accidentally pooped on the potty!  From then on she said goodbye to those surprise "nuggets"!  For the last week she has worn undies for naps (at her request) without accidents and had a dry diaper in the mornings.  She is telling us when she needs to go or just going all by herself most of the time.  My favorite thing is walking around the corner and seeing her waddling from the living room to the bathroom with he pants and undies at her feet.  I keep telling her to wait till she gets to the bathroom to pull her pants down but she would rather head that way prepared and ready!

On the morning of Day 2 I read this on my friend's (Connie Crow) facebook page.   
Col. 3:23-24; "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for The Lord, not men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from The Lord as a reward. It is The Lord Christ you are serving."

This was the morning I read the verse!  It was going to be a big job (as you can tell) that day and I really needed to be encouraged.  Thank you Connie!

I was really blown away reading this.  I thought okay, this is what I am doing today...why would I not totally give this to God.  The reward is a daughter who sees that even God cares about her learning where to potty!  The reward is Adda and Ella learning to turn to God with anything!  It was very cool!  I feel like that was soooo good for me to read at that moment when I was gearing myself up for it that day.  It just made so much sense to me!!!  We prayed after each attempt, each accident, and each successful trip to the potty!  We thanked God for how much he loves us and the girls joined right in saying "lets pray"!  We had lots of treats for Ella, and lots of treats for Adda!  I've never seen Adda be more encouraging than these last three weeks.  Hee job was to be a good encourager and that she did!  Even Ella will tell you that Adda is the Encourager and she is the Big Girl!

We keep a potty in the car and this was the first trip taking Adda to school.  We attempted before we got buckled in!  She thinks it's cool to have a potty in the car!

So, now we have two in diapers, not THREE!  That is a good thing, a very good thing!  I still put a diaper on her at night because I don't want to waste sleepy time on changing sheets and what not!  She still has to be reminded from time to time, but it has been a good experience!  I am very grateful that she has caught on so quickly. Thank you Lord for loving us so much that you will even help us learn to use the potty!

FYI (and my reminders to look back on when we are doing this with TWO)
I've always heard don't potty train in the winter because you want them to have on only undies and feel the accidents.  I think this was easier than doing it in the summer with Adda.  I think feeling wet pee all soaked in pants in the cold is worse.  Also, I had less messes to clean up because her pants soaked it all up.  We didn't really use a potty chair with Adda.  We just took her to the big potty and she sat on a seat there.  The little potty chair was crucial this time because I couldn't always get to her to get her to the bathroom.  My hands were full with babies.  Also, having an Ipad and Kindle have saved us!  Same things I said above, I couldn't always be right there and having something to watch until I was there was a lifesaver!  Probably the thing that helped Ella the most was having to take off her own clothes and put them on the washer herself!  It wasn't easy pulling off wet pants and undies and it showed her how much easier going on the potty was.  It also taught her how to pull up and down her pants so that she could go alone to the potty!  Thanks for that bit of advice Haley!!!!!

If you guys have any other tips you have used let me know!  I will need all the help I can get when we do this with the twins in a few years!  I really can't wrap my mind around doing it with two at once.  I can't imagine how many times I will ask the question "Do you need to go potty?" in one day!!!!