Yup, it's that time for Katie: that special time of a child's life when the parents are desperate to get them OUT OF DIAPERS ALREADY!!!! (ahem)
As you can see from her sticker collection, it's been quite a success. The collection should be even larger, but the Pickle Parents have been rather lax. The process has actually been kind of funny (in retrospect, of course). Katie was VERY attached to her diapers and was extremely reluctant to give them up. They were like a security blanket for her bottom. She was NOT interested in her brand new, pink, froofy, Big Girl Pants. The difference between our two girls has been amusing. Miriam, you may remember, was willing to walk across hot coals, or at least sit on the potty -- for her the same thing -- to wear her new big girl undies. Katie, on the other hand, was perfectly happy sitting on the pot but wanted nothing to do with the undies. I guess it just goes to show that you have to reinvent the wheel with each child!I could tell that Katie was ready for toilet training -- she was just lazy. It was much easier to stand in the middle of the living room and play with her puzzle than to stop whatever fun thing she was doing and sit on a toilet and wait until something happened. I went through a lot of parental tricks before I finally found a system of bribery that worked.
We tried talking up the idea of what a big girl she would be if she could use the potty like her big sis, but that didn't seem to hold any attraction for her. She was perfectly happy sitting and reading a stack of books, but she never did anything. She always waited until 2 minutes after we put her diaper back on.
So, we tried Big Girl Pants. She pitched a fit when I suggested putting them on. She flung herself on the floor (her favorite protest position) and begged, with passionate tears, to have her diaper put back on. I told her that if she went to the bathroom, she could have her diaper put back on. (For Miriam, I would threaten to put a diaper back on her if she had an accident.) I think that worked maybe once.
Then I tried leaving off the undies, and just putting a pair of bloomers on her. I mopped up 2 puddles before I gave that up.
Next, I tried putting plastic pants on her to contain any potential mess (we DO have wall-to-wall carpeting, after all) but left the diaper off so she could feel if she had an accident. She happily walked around with a puddle in her plastic pants.
Finally I realized that any sensation of elastic around her middle felt too much like a diaper, so I just took her diaper off and refused to put it back on, and let her run around naked from the waist down (well, under her dresses). She was NOT happy with this, but Mommy was adamant. I decided it was going to be One of Those Things That We Do Regardless of How We Feel About It, like brushing teeth, or going back to bed at 5 am, or letting Mommy buckle her car seat. This worked for a while -- she didn't like making messes on the floor and so was more willing to try to use the potty since Mommy was being so mean about it. But then she decided it really wasn't worth the trouble and I started mopping up puddles again.
FINALLY I resorted to the big guns: what every girl would do ANYTHING for:
a big bowl of chocolate. sitting on top of the toilet. available to any little girl who successfully used the potty.
Wow, did that work.
I really don't understand people who say you shouldn't use bribery to get your child to do something they should be doing anyway. Obviously these people never actually had children.
Long story short, Katie is now officially a big girl, happily wearing big girl pants, and using the potty regularly without any coaxing, reminding, pleading, bribing, or any other form of parental intervention. She'll be playing in the living room, and then I'll hear a little voice singing in the bathroom, and then, "Mom! Mooooooom!" We've long exhausted the supply of chocolate (it would have lasted longer if someone who shall remain nameless didn't keep dipping her hand in the bowl from time to time), and even the application of Dora stickers has lost its appeal (I've still got 3 sheets left!); but very often after a success Katie will say, "My so pwoud of mysewf!" She'll be in diapers at night & naptime for a while yet, but still, this is a huge deal!
*sniff* She's not our baby anymore...
