Gimme A "P-" Gimme an "O-" Gimme a "T-T-Y!"

Last summer, I posted a depressing review of our failed attempts at potty training. This summer, I'm proud to announce that Sophia has made the leap into big girl undies, and things are going GREAT!

The final months leading up to Cassidy's birth were filled with emotion for Sophia. She talked baby talk and threw tantrums. She wanted to wear diapers like a baby and didn't want anything to do with the potty. So we took an 8-month hiatus, with very little talk/pressure about the potty, during which time Sophia wore pullups 24-7 and used them as diapers for #1, but usually removed them for poops that usually happened in the potty...usually.

Here we are 6 months after Cassidy's birth, and Sophia at age 3.25 is totally ready to be a big kid. It's for real this time. I can't describe exactly how I know this, but I do. And it's so different from previous grandiose visions I had of her wearing cute little undies and not having to nag her to change a soggy pullup. Here's how it happened. One day, about 2 weeks ago, after we visited Sophia's 2.75-year-old friend who was wearing UNDERWEAR (and Sophia knows this kid is MUCH younger), Sophia asked to try out undies again. So we did the following. We took the pullups out of her drawer and put them in her closet for night time only. We got out the stack of last summer's undies and placed them neatly in her top drawer. We told her that we'd bring her little potty wherever she was playing to make it easier. We said that accidents would happen and that was totally 100% OK as long as she was trying her best. We told her that it was up to her to get to the potty in time, and we would not remind her unless we were about to go out of the house, in which case we always would try to pee before leaving. She agreed to all of this wholeheartedly.

So the first day there were 4 pee accidents (and a couple successes). The next day there were only 3 accidents. And then just as things seemed to be going well, on the third day she had 8 accidents, all about an hour or so apart. But something had changed in my outlook, and I did not get upset (as I have in the past). I just said, "Tomorrow will be better." And it was! For the past 2 weeks, she's had only 1 or 2 accidents a day, and a couple mornings she woke up with a dry pullup. Today she made it to the potty EVERY TIME (even while were were out on errands, she told us when she needed to go), and at bedtime she got to throw her undies down the laundry chute not because they were wet but because she'd worn them all day long.

Yay for Sophia's readiness. Yay for Mommy and Daddy's calm, cool attitude. Yay for Cassidy's all-around awesomeness at eating and sleeping, which allows us the emotional energy to do potty training right this time around. It's the right time for success—finally!