Dry Runs...and Wet Runs = Success!

On Friday, the potty came. I wrapped it up and we made quite the deal over it. Ella opened it with great interest, carefully inspected it and even tried it out.



This was our dry run. For the next couple of days, we just tried it out with clothes on. Sometimes she'd sit there for a few minutes, sometimes a few seconds. We weren't picky. I guess those were dry runs. Just for practice.

Trying it out for the first time with a good book...

This morning, after breakfast, Ella and I tried it before bath time. She was very patient sitting there, and I was going to let her sit there as long as she wanted. Well, it must have been a half hour of her sitting and me reading stories and singing songs to keep her occupied. And what do you know? She went! There was much celebration, but if you know Ella, she's rather reserved towards celebrating her accomplishments. Used to cry as a baby when we'd clap for her successes. She took it all in stride, even as I continued to lavish her in praise. We even started a little poster for her to put stickers on when she goes. She's mildly interested in that.

I censored the pic, because even though it was just pee...I'd like to keep this blog somewhat decent...just a little shred. Tiny.

I see it as a first step. I'm not planning that she'll be diaper free any time soon, but it's exciting to get some results. Not that it was easy...I was really digging into my brain archives to come up with some songs to sing from my teaching days. Not that Ella cares, you could sing "Twinkle Twinkle" about 294 times and she'd want to hear "more!"

Ella even wanted to try again before nap. Nothing came of it, but she tried, and that's all that matters. She didn't even freak out when I accidentally pulled the shower curtain and rod down into the tub and on top of myself...it's like a circus around here. I thought for sure I'd just scarred her for life on using the potty with the commotion and noise it caused. But I just sat there and smiled and we ended up laughing over it, even though it kind of hurt my shoulder. This just illustrates how little our bathroom is and how clumsy I'm becoming. Hello third trimester!