Potty Training, Day 1

That's right. The title says it all! Lilly will probably look back one day and be less than thrilled that I'm writing about (and putting up pictures) of her potty training, but that's what parents are for. Today was the first day, of an undetermined number of days, that we started potty training. Definitely an exciting day in our house, and one that I will not easily forget. Jim left this morning for Chicago for the week, so Lilly and I are having a girls' week. What better girls' week activity is there than potty training?! And so far, so good...I think. I don't really know much about potty training. I do know there are so many different methods out there today; one day potty training; 3 day potty training; stress free potty training; toilet training in less than a day; you name it, they have it. I thought about buying a potty training book, but honestly, I started looking on amazon and the sheer number of books was so out of control that I didn't even know where to begin, and most of them sounded like either common sense or nonsense. So I did what I usually do and talked to Mum, a few friends, and am relying on instinct. The one thing I do know is that I don't want to go back and forth between diapers and underwear, so this morning, Lilly started wearing underwear, and she loved every second of it. She kept saying, "undies, like mummy. Undies, mummy?" (meaning, she wants to see my undies too...) I guess it's only natural since she's walking around in her underwear all day! I turned up the heat and decided to forego any pants (for Lilly...I decided that it was better if I keep all my clothes on), and in doing so, saved myself a few loads of washing. I honestly had, and still really don't have, any idea of what to expect. I think she's ready...people keep telling me she's ready...but she's still so little! So I don't have any huge expectations for the week other than to see how it goes. The timing is perfect. It's still cold outside so we'd be inside for most of the day anyway. We don't have a lot going on the next few weeks, but come mid-April, we start to go away quite a bit, so I'd love to see what happens before then.

So far, she goes to the bathroom (almost) every time I sit her on the toilet! The problem is, even if I put her on the toilet every 20-30 min, she still finds time to sneak little accidents in there. When I was telling Jim this today, he said he didn't realize that anyone could go to the bathroom more than me, and until today, I didn't know it was possible either. But Lilly definitely can, hence the 7 or 8 pairs of underwear we went through before nap time. I put a diaper on her for her nap, and then we went back to her undies for the afternoon, and it was a whole different story. She made it until bedtime in ONE pair of undies...from 3:15 until 6:30, when I put her in the bath! Boy did we celebrate. Every time she went to the bathroom, we'd have a huge celebration and she's definitely proud of herself. So now she's asleep for the night, in a diaper, until we start again tomorrow.

Where we spent most of our day, hence the snack...

Lilly and I had a fantastic day. It was one of those days that reminds me how much I love being a mum. It was a strange day to love, given that I spent an inordinate amount of day sitting in our tiny little bathroom talking about undies and using the toilet, so I can't really explain why I loved it, but I did. We played, Lilly sang and was dancing around in her undies all day (see the pictures below), we both had amazing naps (because potty training is exhausting for both parties involved), and then we made pita bread pizzas for dinner and had a picnic dinner (which was Mum's idea, and an ingenious one, because I happen to have a waterproof picnic blanket)! I think we'll be having a lot of picnics this week. Wish us luck! Tomorrow begins DAY 2...

Our picnic dinner!