Potty Prodigy

Phaedra has always been interested in the potty. One day, a few months ago, I had the girls in the tub when Phaedra said, “P U” a few times. I knew what this meant since every time I change her poopy diaper, we joke about how P U-ey she is. She had even started saying “P U” before she did the job. So here she was saying it in the bath and starting to get that tell-tale look on her face. I quickly grabbed her and held her dripping-wet behind over the potty. Sure enough, she did what she said she would do. I made a big to-do about what a good job she did, and I let her wipe her bottom with one of Eleanor’s “special wipes” (flushable toddler wipes). She especially liked flushing the potty, saying, “bye-bye,” and closing the lid.

Since then, Phaedra has loved the idea of going on the potty. She comes to me at random times and insists on going potty. She often already has a wet diaper, but she rarely gets on the potty without forcing something out. Obviously, she isn’t going when her body tells her she needs to do it. Rather, she’s deciding when she wants to do it and tells her body to perform. There have been times in the tub when she begs me to get her out and let her potty, so I’m sure the concept is there part of the time.

I’m not one to push potty training before she’s ready for it. I don’t want to potty train myself by having to ask her every two minutes, and I really don’t want to mess with puddles. I’ve kept all pressure off, only putting her on the potty when she asks to go. Then, I try to praise her and make it fun when she does. She absolutely loved it the first time I said, “plop!” when I heard a plop in the potty, so now, when she wets, we enjoy saying, “tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.” We have to make it worth doing again, right?

At bedtime, Eleanor always goes potty before they get into bed, and about a month ago, Phaedra started insisting on going at that time, too. If she doesn’t insist sometimes, we have tried to skip that step just to get them to bed faster. By the time we’re getting her blanket, she realizes it and begs for the potty. Because I don’t want to force it on her, I always try to ask her if she wants to go or if she just wants me to change her before bed, but she always wants to go. She has lost some interest in the potty during the day, but it seems to be a fixed part in her bedtime routine.

This is a HUGE difference from Eleanor, who loved sitting on the potty but didn’t actually put anything in it (besides toys and binkies) until she was 3 years old and then battled me through so much of the potty training process (oh wait, we still have battles, but that’s another post). So, here’s hoping I’ll have an easy time potty training Phaedra. Maybe she’ll just figure it all out herself. Wouldn’t that be nice :)

Here are some pictures of my little cutie being such a big girl.

  She was really working it for the camera. 

This is the part that really horrifies Grant. She likes to lean in close when she says, “bye-bye.” It makes me feel squeamish inside also, but mostly because I’m afraid she’ll reach in. Grant can hardly stand to watch, poor guy.