Potting Training - Day 1

Today, Tuesday September 6, 2011, was a big day for Chloe.  No it wasn't the first day of school.  It was the first day of potty training!  At 21-months, I'm not sure if it is too early to start, but the babysitter seems to think she is ready.  We know it will take a long time for her to master this new skill so we are going in with a lot of patience.

To prepare for this big adventure, we bought Chloe a lot of underwear to wear during the day in lieu of diapers.  I also packed a lot of extra clothing for the babysitter knowing she will wet quite a few each day.    As expected, there wasn't much "action" on the potty this very first day. In fact, there was no action at all. Every 15 minutes she was put on the toilet for 2 minutes to try to go.  Nothing happened.  On the contrary, at least on a couple of occasions, the second she exited the bathroom and went back to play, she "let the water flow" and wet her pants and her surroundings and called out "water".  This was all expected.  We also know not to discourage her by reprimanding her for her mistakes.  Positive encouragement is the way to go, literally.

Even though she was not successful on the toilet today, I still think there was at least one tangible progress - she now knows potty time equals going to the bathroom and pulling down her pants. That's one big step forward.