Potty Animal, AKA the letter of the day is "P" and the number of the day is "2"

Yes, I'm quoting Elmo's Potty Movie for my title.  That movie has saved my life the past few days.  And yes, you read that right, I'm letting Evie watch a movie.  Multiple times in one day.  Anything to get the potty message across, and to give me a moment to rest!  I only wish I'd discovered that we owned the movie a day earlier (someone had given it to us a long time ago and I had totally forgotten until in a moment of desperation I opened our DVD drawer to put on Finding Nemo for Evie and low and behold, there was my knight in shining armour).

So, let's rewind back to the real "day 1" of potty training.  Since we'd botched up the first 1/2 day so badly, we couldn't really count my birthday potty training fiasco as the official start to the program.  That meant day 1 started Saturday, November 9.  The most gorgeous fall day you'd ever seen.  And we had committed to locking ourselves inside chasing around a naked 1.5 year old who was peeing and pooping on the floor.  What a way to spend one of your final nice days before winter (there is snow on the ground as I type this, only two days after said gorgeous day.  So, yah, we missed out).  Had this three day effort not actually seen rewards, I'd be considerably more depressed about that day.  But, I digress.  Back to day 1.  It was horrible.  We ran out of things to do with Evie inside only two hours in, we were stir crazy and snapping at each other, Evie was picking up on our stress and reacting to it, and we looked longingly out the window at everyone else enjoying their day.  Much like labor, I think I've blocked the rest of my memory about the day out.  At one point I did make homemade play dough which helped ease our afternoon.

Rice activity

On to day two.  Discovery of DVD day.  That morning Evie pooped and peed on the potty!  We rewarded her (and ourselves) with a trip to the park.  We brought along a portable potty and told her to keep her undies dry, and if she needed to go that we'd brought a potty with us.  We didn't want to break her confidence by allowing an accident, so we didn't stay out too long.  Maybe 20 minutes.  But it was the exact refresher we all needed.  We came back and I brainstormed all sorts of activities for the rest of the morning and afternoon.  We finger painted. We played with dried rice in a tub. We colored with crayons.  We played with that play dough again (which sadly was not as nice of a texture as it was the day before.  time to purchase the real deal).  There were no pooping accidents the entire day and only two peeing accidents that happened in the morning.  The rest of the time she successfully made it to the potty!

Cotton ball sorting

Day three (today) I got too cocky and decided to take her to school.  I should've remained on lock down like the 3-day plan suggests.  But, she'd done so well at the end of yesterday and all morning long that I chose to risk it.  We had three pee accidents in undies.  Two at school and one right as we got home from school.  It was obvious how upset Evie was.  By the third accident she didn't want to take off her pants or underwear and just cried into my shoulder.  I felt terrible, like I'd set her up for this failure. We had lunch and she took a very short nap.  However, after nap we turned the corner!

She identified the urge to pee and poop four times between nap and dinner (and successfully did so), stopped eating at dinner to tell us she had to pee, and THEN in the middle of her tub told me she had to go and did so after I pulled her out and plopped her on the toilet.  It was amazing.  I almost think the earlier accidents helped fuel this progress.  She really understood what the results of not making it to the potty was.  It was no longer just a little bit of pee on a hardwood floor, but a change of clothes and departure from the fun of school.  She also learned that three of her friends at school use the potty and wear undies as well.  So, I think that gave her some motivation beyond our coaching.

Day 2 trip to park

Tomorrow we'll try to go to music class. It's much shorter and the accidents at school were both when she was playing with water (understandable, and not something we have to worry about at music class).    That's all we'll likely do for the day.  I'm sacrificing our trips to the gym for lord knows how long, as I don't trust she'll be able to be successful with anyone other than Will or I just yet.  But, I have faith we'll get there.  She was SO incredibly proud of herself all afternoon so I'm hoping the momentum continues.

Finger painting!

So, was it worth it?  So far, yes.  And, Will and I feel like the forced inside time brought out a whole new appreciation for how much we love our little girl.  Yes, it was a real challenge on day 1 but after that she was almost all giggles and loving all the family time.  She even showed us some things we had no idea she could do; i.e. rolling and kicking a ball and catching it when rolled to her.  Will was so proud!  And, during viewing two of Elmo's potty movie I got to cuddle with her on the couch while we watched.  She's typically not very cuddly as she has quite a bit of 'get up and go', so I ate that time up.

We shall see how it goes tomorrow and the rest of the month.  We have a 5 hour drive coming up for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, so that could prove interesting.  I know to expect plenty more accidents between now and full potty training.  And then we'll start naps and nighttime.  I'm so not there yet!