Potty Training!!!

So it's been like forever since I've been able to blog, and I'm going to jump in to the deep end of the parenting swimming pool (a little Olympics reference) by saying I'm prepped to start potty training Samantha!

15 Signs of readiness for potty training:

1. Has bowel movements at about the same time every day
2. Can stay dry for a few hours or wakes up dry from sleep
3. Knows that he/she has to go to the bathroom
4. Understands the association between dry pants and the potty
5. Can pull her pants up and down
6. Lets you know when he/she has soiled his/her diaper

7. Can follow simple directions like, "lets go to the potty"
8. Understands potty training terms

9. Can tell you he/she has to go to the bathroom
10. Imitates other family members
11. Shows interest and asks question while watching you
12. Wants to do things "by myself"
13. Enjoys washing his/her hands (like to be clean)
14. Gets upset if his/her belongings are not in proper place
15. Wants to please you!

Yes: 5, 7, 8, 12, 13
Maybe: 6, 14, 15
No: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11

I guess you can see the fact that the items I answered no to are probably the most important to actually potty train. In fact, the only thing that has even remotely been close to interest was this week she tried to put T's underwear over her diaper. I'm going into this with no expectations, which I think will allow me to be more relaxed about the issue. I plan on trying for a few days, and I think it will be clear one way or the other. If she's not ready we'll drop the subject.

We went to Target this morning to get our "potty supplies". We went to underwear first. I was hoping for "red" underwear (her fav color) and was pleasantly surprised to discover girl Elmo underwear that had red everywhere throughout. Samantha was stoked! "I want that"! On to the potty chair area. I splurged and got the one with all the bells and whistles. It plays songs when you sit down and when it senses urine, and has a flusher that makes a flush noise AND pushes reward stickers out. The chair came with a chart and the stickers, so we'll see. Last we went to the book section and lo and behold we found an Elmo potty book, the kind where you can press the buttons. Elmo is helping his stuffed animal "David" learn how to potty in the potty chair. As we were putting the potty chair in the trunk, she said, "That's my LITTLE potty chair". (She had distinguished earlier that she didn't need a big potty chair, only a little one.)

When I brought the stuff into the house, she was so excited to look at it all. We read the story, and she just giggled at every noise the book made. I forgot to buy batteries for the toilet, but I'm hoping this book will prep her for the noises of the toilet. If the toilet noises scare her, we'll be in a pickle, so I'll test those out before she sits on it so she'll know what to expect. She wanted to sit on the potty while we read the book, so right now she doesn't realize it can eventually make noise. Then we got out the underwear, and knowing she was about to take a nap she asked if she could take the pack to "night night". I told her she could take 1 pair and that we would wear them tomorrow. She was so excited! We got upstairs, and I asked her if she would like to put the underwear on her bear (in hindsight, I should have used her giant Elmo because at the end of her book Elmo is in a pair of underwear). She LOVED the idea of putting the underwear on her bear. She said, "Because he's a big bear." Hee hee!!! Then she tucked him in right beside her under the blanket. It was so cute. I think she still has no concept of what we do when we're on the potty chair (like actually potty), but she's so ready to explore it!

I was quite surprised at all of her interest and excitement-she hadn't shown a bit of this before so we can only hope. Pray for me, too, because the CF makes this a more challenging task than usual. Her poops are not regular, there are MANY a day, and they can be quite loose.