Potty Trained

Oh how long have I anticipated writing this post?  Much too long.  We did have Lena potty trained back around Christmas time, or so we thought... she never really went by herself... we would always have to watch for her "dancing" and it was a fight to get her to actually go to the bathroom each time... she also never really figured out the pooping thing.  When Walter was born she completely reverted and it was just two much work to keep track of her potty-training and take care of a fussy baby at the same time.  So we put her back in diapers until now.  With pre-school starting in less than two weeks we had planned to bite the bullet and take away the diapers again.  She had already been going ALL by herself here and there (i.e. going into the bathroom, getting her stool and potty seat set up, taking off her pants/pajamas and diaper and going all by herself) which amazed me.  One day (August 16 ish) we had her in a swim diaper to swim in her pool in the backyard. When she came in she said she still wasn't done swimming so she didn't want to change yet... I told her not to go pee in her swim diaper since we all know they don't ever hold any pee... well, of course she did and it was just a big mess (Randy was with her) and both just had it... we grabbed the underwear and put away the diapers and brought out the sticker charts and treats and told Lena that the diapers were all gone... the first time she had to go after that she said "I want a diaper" so we knew she had to go and ran her to the bathroom... since then she's only had one "pee" accident and she can go ALL by herself... no help necessary... unless she's feeling lazy.  It took a couple of days for her to figure out the "poop" thing but now she can do that too. :)  She even stays dry at night!  I'm so proud of my big girl for figuring this out and I'm SO glad it's not a fight every time she has to go potty. :)

I wrote this post back in February when I thought we had her potty trained:

I've been saving this picture for quite a while now... waiting to post it when I really and truly feel like this girl is OFFICIALLY potty trained... well... knock on wood... I think I can finally claim that she is.  We started this long hard process during our Christmas break.  She was immediately able to "hold it" for quite a while... the problem was getting her to UNhold it in the potty... then when we finally got that down it felt like a constant battle to get her to sit on the toilet when she was "dancing around"... she would always say "I'm not dancin' around, I was just moving for fun" or "I just have tutes coming" or "The pees aren't coming".   Well, after a few more accidents here and there I feel like she finally understands "I don't want to pee in my pants... I pee in the potty because I'm a BIG girl".