We've had a potty since her 18 month check up when our pediatrician suggested getting it just in case. Ruby could have cared less about it. She showed a teeny tiny bit of interest when Norah showed up potty trained. But, the interest was mostly in watching Norah pee rather than doing it herself. Then we booked a trip to Kauai in April and I fantasized about traveling and swimming diaper free. When I started researching potty training methods, I read an article about letting her walk around naked from the waist down while we were at home. Apparently going right to underpants is confusing for kids because they don't know the difference between diapers and underpants. What do you know? We'd leave her diaper off in the morning and she would use the potty.
I decided to give her a little practice time before officially starting the three day method. Thanks to my BFF the Internet, I came up with a special potty chart and prize to up the ante a bit. As soon as I had Bullseye in my possession, it was game on. Within a week, Ruby filled up her chart.
Once I knew she could do it, I planned the diaper fairy's visit for my Winter break. We weren't traveling so there would be plenty of time to stay close to home. Not only did the diaper fairy take all the diapers to other babies, she left some goodies for Ruby. The cupcakes were her favorite.
We started on Monday but I'm not counting that as her first real day. Apparently hosting a play date and going outside to see the neighborhood kids isn't a very good idea when you're learning how to use the potty. My bad =) Starting Tuesday, we stayed home by ourselves and she did fantastic! We went to the store on Wednesday, had friends over on Thursday, saw a movie on Friday and resumed our normal activities on Saturday.
In addition to the usual playing, reading, coloring, painting, dancing, singing, eating and sleeping, we had to get creative with our activities:
On Saturday night, Grandma O'Brien and her friend Judy were babysitting two girls from our neighborhood. We invited them over for a pizza and jammie movie party (or half sleepover as they called it). The girls decided it was Ruby's potty party.
She was already over the moon when Auntie showed up with a pair of Jessie boots to celebrate Ruby being a big girl. What a great Auntie!
We wrapped up the weekend with a visit to Toys R Us to let Ruby pick out her final present. She wanted a big girl baby doll with real hair and eyes that close. As soon as we got in the store, she found a rubber frog and was sold. We convinced her to check out the baby dolls just in case and found the perfect doll. Adam used the frog as leverage to get her to the register and out of the store. $13 later, Ruby was the proud owner of Baby Goo Goo and a rubber frog. It's hard to say which one she loves more.
We celebrated over dinner and called it a night. Phew. I didn't realize it was so exhausting to stay home all week.
P.S. Can you believe 2.5 years ago I didn't even say the word "poop" let alone devote an entire blog entry to the subject? Haha.
