Notes on Potty Boot Camp, Day One

Today started off a little rocky. Because it was called, "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day", I assumed we'd be completely trained. By tonight. Let's just say my expectations may have been a little high. I also started out extremely stressed out about the whole thing, in spite of my desires for a "fun" day of potty training. By 9:45, I'd had to wash all three (and only three) pairs of training pants I'd bought. By lunch, Michael was having to talk me off the ledge and convince me that we would be sticking with potty training longer than half a day.


I was thrilled when naptime finally rolled around. I took the time to do, well, just about nothing. I prayed for peace, and tried to get my wits about me so that I wouldn't be a raging maniac come bedtime.

And I think something clicked, for both of us. After she woke up, we gave it a few goes. She stayed dry. We had success on the potty. And she continued to stay dry! We made it from the end of naptime to bedtime with no accidents. Although at lunch Phoebe was content to wet her trainers and continue eating, tonight she managed to do the potty dance and avoided an accident. Hooray!

Clearly, I have no idea what I'm doing. But here are some random notes about our first day of potty boot camp:

• Juice boxes are your friend. Phoebe never gets undiluted juice, much less juice boxes. These were pretty much the best treat ever.
  
• Phoebe will do anything for a "Bob Gummy" (a Veggie Tales fruit snack). Really. We have three packs left in a ten-pack box.
  
• Buy more than one pack of training pants, unless you want to do three extra loads of laundry.
• A change of scenery does everyone good. My friend Alicia suggested we move it outside... it was a great place to potty and push fluids. (Was that too much information?)

Tomorrow will be a more "normal" day since Nora will be with us. I'm hoping to ride the success of tonight into tomorrow morning, and con her into eating some of the other fun treats we have in order to stretch those last three packs of fruit snacks.