Potty Training

I'm beginning to try to potty train Laurel right now.  Well, I've been "beginning" it for about 3 or 4 months now.  Laurel is a smart kid--she can count to 10 in English and Spanish, she knows the alphabet, she has been speaking in complete sentences for over 6 months.  She fully understands the concept of going in the potty.  But the act of doing it has fully eluded her so far.

A few months ago I made a sticker chart for her.  I took her in the bathroom and showed it to her, and explained that when she goes potty in the toilet she gets a sticker, and when she gets 5 stickers she gets chocolate.  She understands that.

We bought a Dora potty seat.  We also bought Dora pull-ups.  She likes her seat (she especially likes to walk around the house with it on her head yelling "This is not a toy!"  Think she's heard that phrase connected with that activity?).  She likes her Dora diapers.  She understands that when she goes potty in her Dora diapers, then she has to wear her Elmo diapers (the regular kind).

When I get her dressed in the morning, Laurel talks non-stop.  It usually going something like this:  "Laurel is wearing Dora diaper.  Don't get Dora wet!  Don't get Dora dirty!  Go potty in the toilet!  Don't get Dora wet!  Underwear!  Don't poop in Dora diaper!  Potty in toilet, get sticker and chocolate!"

Guess how many times Laurel has gone potty in the toilet.  A BIG FAT ZERO!

I take partial responsibility for that.  We haven't done any of the crazy things you can do, like let her run around with no pants and no diaper on, or have a potty chair in every room in the house.  I try to remember to set my alarm to go off every hour on my phone, and then make her sit on the potty.  But I don't always remember.  And sometimes I'm feeding the baby when the alarm goes off, and then I never get around to putting her on the potty.  I haven't changed our schedule of running errands, going for walks, going to the park, going to the library, etc., to accommodate for potty training.  So I guess right now my grade as a potty training teacher is pretty low...maybe a D-.

The only way I can get Laurel to sit on the toilet for more than 3 seconds is to let her watch Go Fish videos on my phone.  

Her diaper is generally dry after her nap, and it has even been dry in the morning when she wakes up for the last week or so.  I know that her body is physically capable of not going in her diaper, and she has the concept.  Now I just need to get her to put it into action!  Once she does that, I'm guessing she will catch on very quickly and figure it out.

Incidentally, nearly every day within 5 or 10 minutes of sitting on the potty, Laurel will go into the kitchen, stand behind the door of the corner cabinet, and poop in her diaper.

Laurel's "Poop Corner"

Not to leave Nicolas out, I put this outfit on him the other day after he had a mega poop explosion.