Twice the Pee, Twice the Poop

We attempted potty training last fall. I thought, how difficult could this be? We bought two Elmo potty chairs, a lot of big girl panties, some treats for rewards and set aside a week to stay at home. In advance, we read the books, watched the videos, demonstrated the whole procedure and basically talked a lot about poop and pee (or tee-tee as they like to call it).

We talked about being BIG GIRLS and how exciting it was to wear big girl panties. We talked about babies using diapers, dogs using the outdoors and big girls using potties. I was anxiously looking forward to an instant raise for our family by eliminating $80 a month in diapers.

Sigh.

It didn't work for either girl - Hannah was totally focused on the rewards and would sit on the potty for two seconds, jump up and demand an m&m. Emma just ran around crying and keeping it all inside. After three days, I gave up.

Fast forward to May 2010. Since the girls were now 2 1/2 years old, I figured it was time to try again. Thank God, Hannah got it in a day and a half. It's been three weeks and she's only had one small accident. She still wears a diaper at naptime and bedtime but I still think that is awesome! She just adores her Minnie Mouse panties and will proudly show them to any stranger who would like a peek.

Emma is another story. She had several accidents the week we stayed home. Then she apparently got tired of that because she started crying about the potty again and holding it in. She was obviously not ready to be a big girl just yet. So I put her back in diapers and told her when she was ready, we would try again. She knows she will get a special present when that day comes (a toy princess cell phone) but apparently the need to chat on the phone doesn't quite outweigh the fear of the potty. We'll get there and in the meantime, at least we've cut our diaper bill in half!