Post #200: A Special Bulletin

Attention please!

We interrupt our normal programming to bring a special announcement from Eleanor (sorry it's a little PG-13). Hit pause on the music on the sidebar so you can hear the video.

She took it literally when I asked her if she wanted to tell the camera. Ha ha! I was about to put her in a bath, so we hadn't bothered to zip her jammies-- sorry for the showy video.

This is the first time ever that she has actually done something on the potty!! We have a little potty for her that we've had out since she was about 18 months old. It had been in the garage since we moved, but we had one of those seats on the big potty in case she wanted to try and go. Last night, I was rearranging things in the garage, and brought in the little potty. I didn't even realize Grant had put it in the half-bath until I went to use the bathroom this morning, and Eleanor came in and said she was going to sit on her potty, too. I got her sitting down there and went and got her some books. I put the books in front of her and started putting clothes in the dryer. A second later, I could hear her going in her potty!! I ran in there, practically screaming I was so happy. Eleanor happily declared, "And now I don't have to wear a diaper anymore!" We had talked to her about big girl pants and getting rid of diapers. I had to explain that since we don't currently have any big girl pants, we would have to put a diaper on, but now that she went on the potty, we'll be going to buy some. I think we'll start with pull-ups. I'm not ready to do all the cleaning up. She got "lots" of candies as a reward. We've been giving her one M&M for trying to go potty lately, and we promised her lots if she actually did go potty on the potty. So, she got a little cup full of M&Ms to celebrate, and we quickly called Daddy to share the news.

She's been showing signs of readiness, but she had never actually gone in the potty. I've known that if we could just get past that step, it should be pretty easy from there. Hopefully it will be. You never realize just how gross it is to change a 3-year-old's diaper until you're changing diapers on a baby in comparison. I'm ready to be done!