The Potty Training Game

The other day I was at Target in the baby section getting formula for Mason. I had Leah with me and she took great interest in the 'potty' section. She was drawn to one little potty in particular. This potty was a princess potty that played music. She kept pressing the button for it to play music and asked if we could get it. (We already had a little potty at home, but the potty training hasn't been going so well and I am starting to feel hopeless). If Leah is interested in this pink princess toilet, I would be willing to get it for her. I asked her if she would go peepee on the potty if I bought it for her. She said yes and we put it in our cart.

We came home and opened up the box. She was more interested in pushing the button that made the music play. I asked her if I should go set it up in the bathroom. She said no and told me to put it in the family room. I wasn't going to argue with her. If she wants the potty in the living room where she is comfortable and she actually uses the bathroom - I'll take it! I asked her if she wanted to try the potty, she told me "No, I am too tired. Let's do it later." I was beginning to think I just wasted $30 on this new potty.

Rob has been telling Leah for weeks now that if she goes peepee on the potty, we would take her to Chuck E. Cheese. She sees the commercial every day and always gets so excited and tells us she wants to go there as a family. I reminded her that if she went pee, we would take her to Chuck E. Cheese. She got excited, but still told me she was tired and didn't want to do it now. I didn't force the issue and we all went on with our evening. Awhile later, Leah told me that she wanted to play with her Play-Doh and I thought this might be an opportunity to try to get her to go. I said, "Leah if you go peepee on the potty, Mommy will play Play-Doh with you." She got excited and said okay. She took off her shorts and asked me to take off her diaper. She sat down on her pink potty and she sat, and she sat. She said it wouldn't come out. I was sitting right by her, encouraging her to go. She then asked me if I could 'go away.' Maybe Leah just needed her privacy. I stepped away into the other room and a few minutes later, I heard the sound of the music coming from her potty. (When you pee in the potty, the music automatically plays). Leah came running into the room and was SO excited and very proud of herself. She said, "Momma, I went peepee!!" We were all so happy! We danced around and told Leah how proud we were of her. (If someone was looking in at us, they probably would have thought we were nuts at how excited we got). Before, Leah wouldn't even go near the other potty we have in our upstairs bathroom.

The next morning, I wanted to continue with the momentum and see if she would go on the potty again. This time she was more reluctant and said she didn't want to. I'd ask her every 20 minutes or so if she had to use the bathroom and each time she said no. Eventually, I asked her if we could just try. She agreed and we took of her pants and her diaper. After a short while, nothing was coming out and she started to get upset and cried a bit asking me to put her pants back on. She agreed that we could leave the diaper off though and just put on her shorts. Ten minutes later, she came running out of her playroom crying. She had an accident and she was upset about it. I didn't want her to feel bad so I made sure she knew it was okay. I cleaned her up and put on a fresh pair of shorts. I continued to ask her if she had to go potty. I told her to tell me when she had to go. A short while later, she had another accident again and she got just as upset. I took off her pants and told her we should just leave them off for awhile. She was a little resistant, but finally agreed. She ran around the house playing with a bare butt. After about an hour I asked her to come into the living room and see if she could try going potty. She was fighting me on it and told me she didn't want to. There was some back and forth of me trying to get her to sit down and the next thing I know, pee is dripping down her leg. By now, I wasn't feeling very confident that this was going to work out. Maybe now was just not her time. She was visibly upset and I didn't want to push it any further. We put a diaper back on and got a new pair of pants. I didn't bring up the potty the rest of the day.

Later in the afternoon, Leah and I were sitting on the couch watching cartoons. Out of no where, she said, "Mom, I think I should try to go potty." I was ecstatic and said okay and we marched into the family room. She took off her pants and sat down. She sat there for a minute and then asked me if I could leave her alone. I agreed and left the room. Within a minute, I heard the music coming from her potty. My little girl did it again! She was so happy and we once again danced around the house. We called her dad at work and gave him the good news. She was proud of herself. Her dad told her she did a good job and that we were going to take her to Chuck E. Cheese that night. She just about lost it, she was SOOO excited. She had been waiting weeks (if not months) to go there. We've never taken her there before.

After work, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese and Leah could hardly contain herself. It wasn't very crowded, which was good. I can't say that I was a huge fan of the place and the pizza was terrible, but Leah was having a great time and that is all that mattered. Chuck E. Cheese himself was there and she was happy to see him. She loved putting tokens in the games and watching all of the tickets come out. We had a hard time getting her to leave and she asked if we could come back. We told her if she keeps going potty on the potty, we could come back. I felt like we had made some progress!

When we got home it was almost bedtime. I asked Leah if she wanted to go potty, but she told me that she already did (in her diaper). I asked her if she wanted to wear a pull-up to bed and she got upset and told me no. I didn't want to force her, so we put a diaper on and then her jammies. I told her to come wake me up if she had to go to the bathroom. Of course that didn't happen and she woke up with a wet diaper (which I expected). Leah didn't want anything to do with going to the potty this morning and got pretty upset about it. I texted my daycare and asked her if it would be weird if I brought the potty with me when I dropped Leah off. She thought it was a good idea. When I pulled up this morning and started taking the potty out of the car, Leah got mad and said she didn't want me to bring it. I brought it anyways. My daycare definitely has a special touch with Leah. She told Leah how excited she was she went to the bathroom on the toilet and gave her so many encouraging words. She asked her if it was okay if they put the potty in her bathroom and Leah agreed and seemed to lighten up about the topic in general.

A few hours later, I got a phone call from daycare and Leah had gone to the potty all by herself and she even got her to wear a pull-up! Melissa said all she did was tell Leah she should try to go potty before she went outside to play with the water table and she went and took care of business. However, after Leah's nap it was a completely different experience. Melissa asked Leah if she had to go to the bathroom and Leah got so upset and was crying uncontrollable. She didn't want anything to do with going on the potty. She said it took her quite awhile to calm down. When I picked her up, she did tell me that she went on the potty earlier. I don't get it - one minute she is super excited about going, but then the next minute she is an emotional wreck. 

This potty training business is tough work. I know Leah can go to the bathroom on the potty and she is completely capable, but I just don't know why she gets so upset at times. She flat out does not want to do it. Maybe she just isn't ready or maybe she is just being stubborn. There has been lots of change in her life with me being home and Mason joining out family. I don't want her to force her to use the potty. Maybe I should back off and let her tell me when she is ready (since I know she can do it) and be encouraging. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on potty training? We've tried sticker boards, books about going potty, having her wear no diaper, Princess underwear, taking her to Chuck E. Cheese and other types of rewards. I bought her a present today (a new play-doh set) and told her if she went on the potty she would get the present. She hasn't bought into it yet. Sigh......I don't want to get mad or frustrated with her because that would be give us an even bigger set back. I guess I have to remember she is only 2 1/2 and we still have some time.

Since we got home today, I did get her to agree to wear a pull-up. I've continued to ask her if she has to go and she tells me she is too tired or she doesn't want to. I guess where we are is a start and all I can do is keep working at it! We'll see what the rest of the weekend holds and maybe I'll have better news to report.