Potty-training Katy

A few weeks ago, Katy refused to put another diaper on in the morning.  "Underwear, potty, " she insisted.  "No diapers."  Okay.  I wasn't quite ready for that, but whatever.

We got her little pink potty out, set it up in the family, and watched Curious George like normal.  She was sitting on the potty, so of course when she peed in it, we made a huge deal out of it and gave her marshmallows.  That first day, we tried to stay on hard floors or outside most of the time.  Katy had several accidents, but also several successes.

Days 2 and 3, I was exhausted.  Katy couldn't pull her pants down and didn't quite know when she would have to go, so it was constant watching her and helping her to the potty.  By day 4...I was ready to give up.  At noon I complained to Curtis about how I was tired of it and maybe I would just go back to diapers (it didn't help that at that time we only had 3 pairs of underwear, so I was constantly doing laundry!).  But....less than an hour later, she pooped in the potty all by herself with no prompting...and we made a successful trip to York.  That gave me the motivation to keep trying.

By the next week, she was telling me when she had to go and had maybe 3 accidents the whole week.  Katy loved her new Cars, Nemo, and Toy Story underwear (I searched all over the internet to find girl underwear with Lightning McQueen!).

I always said that Katy would potty train when she decided she wanted to, and she did.  Sooo much quicker than Lane - I remember washing underwear out for months with him!  She already stays dry during naps and, if she wakes up once at night to pee, she'll stay dry all night too.  (At 4, Lane still doesn't stay dry. Someday he'll be embarrassed about that!).

However, Katy being Katy, she has had to make it difficult for me at times...she decided that she can pee in the grass like Lane.  Even if I haul her into the house quickly, she screams and cries and ends up peeing on her bedroom floor.  So after a huge tantrum out in the field, I let her try it, and of course she peed all over everything.  I thought that might be the end of it.

Today at Playdate at the Park, she decided once again that she can pee in the grass.  I told her she can figure it out.  She took off her shorts and underwear...and spread her legs far enough apart that her shoes wouldn't get wet....and peed.  Nothing I could say would stop her!  After she was done, I told her, "Girls don't pee in the grass.  Only boys can."  She looked at me and stated, "No, I peed on the tree."  Well....ok....it's tough to argue with Katy!

Hopefully this is only a phrase!

But I am very thankful that at only 2 years and (less than!) 3 months, Katy potty-trained herself.  Sometimes stubbornness isn't all that bad!