So I was a little skeptical when I heard about potty training your child in just one day when I first read about it on a website. But then my friend Skye used this approach to train her daughter Celeste before her second birthday, and after talking to her about it and asking a million questions, I felt Jackson would be a perfect party boy.
First step--Skye let me borrow the book, Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane and I read it twice. Really it is a lot shorter than it looks as half of the book is devoted to party themes and shopping lists.
The next step was to have Sierra get on board. He took the quiz in the book and scored higher than I did -- so he was either a. more ready to train Jackson or b. embellishing his answers. We scored the same on the quiz about Jackson being ready -- he had all the signs -- dry diapers, potty interest, able to communicate potty language, follow directions, etc.
After talking to Sue at daycare, we decided to have the party on November 11th because I was off for Veterans' Day. Let the party begin!
The party started the night before when Sierra and I decorated the party areas. Sierra made the cool signs and I purchased the supplies. I decided Jackson would be super excited if we had a firefighter theme because he loves trucks, especially firetrucks. About a week before the BIG DAY, we started talking about his Potty Party. Sue recommended doing a visual countdown on the calendar so each night we crossed out a day to anticipate the party day. Jackson was so cute because he kept saying we would have cake at his Potty Party (I put a sticker on the calendar of a cake with a firetruck).
When Jackson woke up on his BIG DAY, I told him that I saw a present for him in the bathroom. Inside he found Big Boy Bear. He was wearing Big Boy Underwear. Woo hoo!!!
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| special breakfast with Big Boy Bear |
That morning I gave him a special breakfast with party balloons.
We did everything with Big Boy Bear and showed the bear how to use the potty (using apple juice and prunes in the potty). We played special games related to firefighters and only read books about using the potty. We also watched Elmo's Potty Time DVD throughout the morning.
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| special treats for staying dry and using the potty |
Many times Big Boy Bear made mistakes, but I always modeled how to use the potty after and gave Big Boy Bear treats for trying, staying dry, and using the potty. Oh and Big Boy Bear doesn't eat treats, so Jackson ate them once he promised that someday he would use the potty.
FINALLY it was nap time. Of course he didn't go down easy like any other day because he was excited about the party theme. But once he was asleep I took a nap, too. I knew it was going to be fun times ahead...
After nap Big Boy Bear gave Jackson a present--a bag full of underwear to match the ones he was wearing. SO EXCITING! From that point on, Jackson wore underwear. We used the same techniques from the morning, but this time with Jackson. I couldn't believe 5 minutes after nap he was peeing on the potty. It was so exciting for both of us!
Later that night Sierra came home and I quickly had to give him the Cliff's Notes on the Potty Party Techniques. That was hard! Autumn, Marcos, and my mom came over to help us celebrate Jackson being a BIG BOY! Together we packed up his diapers and "threw" them away.
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| the potty room |
We are now on day 10 of potty training. The party was successful because it was the day of intense training and Jack gained an understanding of how to use the potty by training the bear. But, it didn't just happen in that day. We only use Pull Ups at nap and at bedtime as the book and daycare recommended.
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| taking Big Boy Bear everywhere |
He is doing really well now! It wasn't easy the first few days -- many accidents and wet clothes...but wow he sure has learned how his little body works. He is so proud of himself for "staying dry" and using the potty--"I did it!!!" and this is encouraging because there were times where I wanted to put a diaper back on but didn't because that would send the wrong message. Daycare was really good about keeping him in underwear as well and we have learned a few things over the last 10 days which I will now share with you!
1. Own at least 16 pairs of training underwear (they are thicker)
2. Our favorite potty books are: The Potty Train, Potty Time With Elmo, Elmo's Potty coloring book (thanks Auntie Autumn), and Even Firefighters Go to the Potty.
3. Stay positive always even when you want to cry...example: I took Jack to the potty and 5 minutes letter he had an accident. Ugh.
4. Train your partner with the potty language several days before your party (otherwise it's really hard to train your kid and your husband).
5. Do it when both of you are ready and have time to spend in intense potty mode. It would have helped if I had taken the second day off of work to spend hours in the bathroom. We did that on the third day instead.
Skye also introduced me to a really cool portable potty: Potette. When Jackson first used it on our trip to Denver, he said: "that's for girls!" -- who knew he would notice that it was pink and purple? Sorry they were sold out of green and blue!
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| reading the paper in my undies |
Good luck on your potty training adventures!
