Zoe has declared herself to be in potty training. If it were up to me, I would have waited until this summer when 1) she will be wearing fewer clothes 2) she will spend a great deal of time outside where messes are easier to clean up and 3) when school isn't in session.
Anyway, as I said, she has decided it's time to be potty trained. Here's how it works in this house. During the potty training time children are rewarded for successful trips to the potty. If they go potty they receive 3 M&M's and if the do their other business they receive 5 M&M's. One day, Zoe sits down to breakfast, about halfway through the meal she declares that she needs to go poopy. I take her to the potty and, lo and behold, she successfully completes her duty and is rewarded 5 M&M's right in the middle of breakfast. Over the next several days she has several successful trips to the bathroom and is dutifully rewarded.
Well, the child who used to have a total of two poopy diapers a day is now a pooping machine and managing to go about six or seven times a day. Do you think maybe she's playing this for all it's worth? How much weight do you think she will gain in this process? How long do you think it will be before I am totally out of M&M's?
Guess where she is right now. Yes, you're right, having just gone poopy five minutes ago, she is once again on the potty chair. She has stayed dry al day and if she has another dry day tomorrow she is going to be sporting a sweet pair of princess underwear. She's pretty excited!
HA! Smart girl you got there. On a positive note, she seems to have good body control...
ReplyDeleteThat is determination! A great quality to have- I am amazed that she can make herself go that many times a day--maybe it's the chocolate????
ReplyDeleteI hope Justin decides to join rank soon as I'd love to have him out of diapers before the baby arrives!
Any advice Zoe?
Tami
Oh, yes, there's no doubt that she is READY to be potty trained. And yes, she is very smart - too smart sometimes, like when she's being sneaky and stealing candy out of the cupboards while we're doing school in the basement...
ReplyDeleteZoe is one of those self-training kids. Out of my eight, she's the second one to train herself - Nina, of course, was the other (those of you who know Nina will know why it is an "of course".
ReplyDeleteOh, Tami, I see you are no longer anonymous - nice to have you recognized now :)
ReplyDeleteVery smart girl!
ReplyDeleteNice work Zoe! She is definitely one smart cookie (and SOOO cute)
ReplyDeleteAmanda
Well, Zoe succeeded in staying dry all the while we were there today. I cannot vouch for what she did while she was napping since she was still sleeping when we left. Raelea tattled on Zoe and said she removed her diaper during quiet time before she fell asleep.
ReplyDeleteYes, Zoe stayed dry during naptime as well, which is a good thing since she had stripped her diaper and all her clothes off before going to sleep :)
ReplyDeletei guess I better go dig out the underwear for her because I know she is going to be asking for it as soon as she wakes up!
looks like sweet zoe is milking this potty training all she can! she seems to have figured out how to space 'em out to get the most value out of the system of reward! :)
ReplyDelete