We're in the business of POTTY TRAINING

We are TRYING to potty train Sara faith. 

Turns out, we aren't so good at it. We bought the pink potty chair/throne (royal flush.. her "throne"-- get it? Ha!)that plays royal music when she..um, goes. She immediately tells me "I can't wike it!"  why??? I tried it when she 1st turned 2 and gave up within the day. She despises the chair. I guess because my method has just been to let her sit on it until she pees. Literally. I put it in front of the TV, turn on the DVRd Barney shows and leave her there. But she wouldn't ever do it and got up to walk in the kitchen and go all over the floor! Are you kidding me?!?!?! So we gave up and went back to buying diapers. sigh* "We'll try when she's 'ready'" but I have no idea when that is.

So a few months later It's time to buy diapers again and I am reminded how we are spending $30 on items she is just going to pee and poop on and I want to try again. Maybe she is ready now?

I was having a conversation with my friend, Vickie and we were saying how our children were about the age where people start to look at you funny if you're kids aren't potty trained but ours, of coarse, weren't. We talked about having a place to send them off for a week and then they would just come back fully potty trained!! aaaahhhh *dreamy stare*. Then we said "Hey! That's a great idea. We should totally start that..." and never mind cause we realized we were the wrong two to be thinking about training anyone else's child when we couldn't even help our own!

When Savannah turned 2 six years ago, we were in Tuscaloosa and there was this wonderful daycare worker that told me to just bring her in her big girl panties everyday and by the end of the week she would be potty trained. ....I know! But she totally was. The very week of her 2nd birthday. Can I enroll SF for just one week? I will of coarse never be that lucky again because Savannah has just always been so easy. I love her!

anyways. back to the problem at hand. Someone (Maybe my friend Leslie) was telling about how someone she knew did the potty training in a weekend/day thing. She was saying how mean and awful it was because they would just contain the child in the kitchen with his potty chair and give him popcorn and other things to make him thirsty and where he would obviously go to the bathroom. She is telling me this with disgust and all I can think was "Did it work??"

Well I buckled down the last couple days and turned my home into a no-mans land. No diapers just panties. I would do totally buff but I do want to know if she has had an accident and not by standing in it! EVERY hour I sit her on that potty (usually screaming 'I can't wike it!') and she watches TV eating popcorn and drinking endless supply of DIET COKE. I will give her whatever she wants but that is the one drink (Mommy's drink) that she always wants.

I put her on the potty as soon as she wakes up in the morning, every hour, after nap and so on. She is getting a lot of potty time.  At night.. I let her sleep in panties! I know. I'm brave. In the picture she had just gone to the potty and her Maw Maw put her in a pull-up. Not me. I don't do pull-ups. They are no different than diapers and are more expensive. 

Now when she finally goes potty she gets to chose from this ridiculous stash! Now I will admit I think I went a little overboard with the treats but let me tell you when she goes the first thing she says is "Yay, I go potty! I get treat!" YES you do baby! Yes you do.

Now I don't have any fancy advice and were not even half way there yet so this is in no way a guide. OK? But so far we have had 5 wet visits to the potty and a stinky one just today. Kids work best from praise and you can't quite praise them or explain it before they know what "it" is. When she finally pooped I was so excited to celebrate so she could see just how exciting and GOOD what she did was. She couldn't wait to get candy and tell Daddy! Some people might read this and be all "I'm a better mother than you and I can't believe you would do that" but there are a lot of things I would do to make life easier on me and those around me. Deal with it. My parenting style is this: Whatever works within the law, my religion and doesn't mess the kids up too much in the longrun :)) soooo... Imma keep doin it dis way bcuz it work.