Starting our potty training journey

I’ve written before about not being ready for the potty training to commence in our household. Unfortunately my disinterest did not communicate itself to Cameron. It is with a medium level of enthusiasm (and it’s that high only because Cameron is so excited about it) that we start our journey towards a diaper free future.

I had been planning to wait until Cameron transitioned to the Twos room (T-minus 1 month!) and let daycare take the lead as I do for so many other things. Cameron had other ideas. We’ve had a potty in our ½ bath downstairs for about 2 months. Every once in a while she would ask for a “diaper change” which was her code phrase for using the potty. I would strip her down and hand her a book while she sat on the toilet. She would always insist that I sit on the toilet next to her which is freaking adorable but grew old quickly.

Cameron also loves to give “diaper change” to her “babies”. I picked up a Circo set for her and we spend far too much time performing diaper changes on a monkey, creepy Little Pony doll and some kind of fairy doll. Sometimes her Santa doll (there’s a story there, and I’ll tell it one day) even gets into the act. The cheap Circo set is no longer available from Target but here is a link to a similar one.

When we were out two weeks ago I came across an Elmo potty insert (to be used on a regular toilet). I thought that Cameron would respond well to it so I picked it up and took it home to be used in my bathroom. Side note: I use the “guest” bathroom in our house because the master bath has a shower so small it is impossible to shave in. Essentially Cameron and I share a bathroom. It is fairly small so I didn’t want to add a potty. I need that space for my scale because I still have 2.5 pounds to lose! Another reason is that Cameron wants to do whatever I do. Which means she doesn’t want her own potty, she wants to sit on the regular toilet.

Picking up that $12 toilet insert was what really kick started the process. Cameron wanted to sit on it right away. And then she started asking regularly for a “diaper change.” On Saturday afternoon after nap she peed on the potty for the first time. DH and I made a big deal out of it (of course) and she repeated the feat before bedtime. Sunday morning she wanted to get on the toilet right away and again we had success. That was followed by 2 more successful (pee only) events.

Monday during my day off (I love a BigFinance holiday while daycare is open!) I bought some training underwear (Target only had the boy ones in her size) and some regular underwear. We have now incorporated potty trips for first thing in the morning, after school and before bed. Cameron still gets the order of the code phrase wrong. Sometimes she says “diaper change” after she pees/poops but about 50% the time she gets it right. Another advance is that when she poops in her diaper she now wants to be changed immediately and walks funny to keep the poop away from her skin.

Cameron has yet to have any success using the potty at daycare (they ask, she says no) but it’s only been 3 days. I’m sure peer pressure in the Twos room will accelerate the training. In the meantime I am happy that we still use diapers (for ease) and I haven’t had to go to pull ups yet for daycare. Those things are freaking expensive. Now, since I’ve done little/no research, what else should I be doing? Please keep in mind that I’m not ready to do cold turkey training, or anything like that.