This is posted at both Cootiepie and Cootiehog
Today we had Family Christmas with Denis’ side of the family. A few days ago two of the gifts arrived for CootieGirl. They were items I had put on my Amazon wishlist that were specifically for her – a portable booster seat and a toddler potty.
After all the other presents were unwrapped and cooed over I opened the potty box. There were mild instructions for putting in the battery related to the flushing sound the potty makes when the toddler pulls the handle. It took Uncle Peter and I a few minutes to do this because when installing the battery the mechanism kind of unhinged and we had to put it back together. It works now, but you have to pull the handle UP to get the flushing sound, not down.
CootieGirl was thrilled with her potty and as soon as it was functional she began sitting on the seat, saying “My potty” and things of that sort. She kept lifting the lid, sitting, then standing and closing the lid. This went on for a good hour.
So just about 15 minutes ago, all is quiet in the house save for CootieGirl and I playing on the floor with her booster seat (the other hit present of the day). She suddenly stood and went over to the potty.
“Potty,” she said, and made a motion to pull down her pants.
“You want to take off your pants?” I asked her, and she nodded. I helped her get her pants off and then she asked for her shirt to be removed, so I took that off as well. Then she grabbed at her diaper, whining for it to be taken off. I took it off and she promptly sat down on the potty.
“Dirty,” she said (which is the word we say when we know her diaper needs to be changed). I nodded and said, “Yes, this is where you go when you know you will pee or have a dirty diaper.”
Seconds later she’s peeing in the potty. In the nude. In the middle of our living room next to the Christmas Tree. Such holiday joy.
I praised her and when she stood up I went to show her how to use the toilet paper (a roll hangs off the potty) but she balked and so I showed her that she needed to put used toilet paper in the potty. After I did that she promptly grabbed it and took it out. A nice soaking, dripping-with-urine wad of toilet paper in her hands and over my hardwood floors.
I shrieked a little bit, which made her cry, but I quickly replaced my shrieks with cries of “You did great! You used the potty! Yay!” but inwardly my skin was crawling because ewww. I had her drop the wad back into the toilet and dropped the lid on the potty. Taking her arms (not her hands because ewww) I led her upstairs and continued praising her all the way up. I wiped her (and me) down with diaper wipes and then took a quick dip in the decontamination chamber (I wish). I put a fresh diaper on her and again praised her for using the potty. She then watched me clean the removable bowl from the potty in the bathroom sink and replace it into her potty, where she promptly pointed and said, “dirty!” and sat down on the potty seat again.
She’s hooked, I think. Who knew she’d take to potty training this soon (20 months)? I plan on taking the potty with us to my family’s house in Virginia – since we’re going to be there with her 24 hours a day for 7 days it’s the perfect opportunity to get her potty trained or as close to it by the new year.
Huzzah!
