Potty training (day 3)

Today Phoebe only had one accident, so I guess she's pretty committed to the idea of potty training. So committed, in fact, that she didn't go potty at all between the hours of 11:00 am and 4:00 pm!

I mean, sure—she sat on the potty (often). She just wouldn't go!

It was getting to the point where she really needed to go down for a nap...but I just couldn't put her down yet because she refused to empty her bladder...and I was getting a little desperate. But she finally did her business and then went down for a quick pre-dinner nap. 

Andrew was on campus today and I'm sure he was happy about all the million notifications he got from Amazon. He gets a notification every time a timer is set and I was setting timers a lot today! (I suppose he could just choose to turn off those notifications, but still—I used a lot of timers!)

After she goes potty, I set the timer for a half hour. Then we try going again. If she goes, I set another half hour timer. If she doesn't then I set a fifteen minute timer. Then if she goes, I set a half hour timer. But if she doesn't then I set a ten minute timer...and so on throughout the day.

That worked out pretty well for us today. 

Sometimes she will start taking herself potty (though she still needs a lot of help). Sometimes she'll say "Yes!" when I ask her if she needs to go, but usually she'll say "No!" (and then I'll inform her that that's okay—but when the timer goes of it will be time to try). 

I'm trying to get her to use a word (or a sign) for potty, but so far she's pretty uninterested in indulging my efforts. The closest thing she has right now is "Toot!" (because she loves calling out people who "toot"). 

Not only does she point at them and say, "Oh! Toot!"...she also tries to reciprocate. 

The other night Daddy tooted while he was giving her a bath and Phoebe said, "Oh! Toot!" to him and then pushed and grunted and...much to her surprise a little poopie popped out. So bath time was immediately over...and we had to sterilize all the tub toys...and clean the bathtub...and that was fun.

Her accident this evening was a poop at the dinner table. It would be great if she would say anything to let us know! We'll keep working on that.

Here she is playing with some of her animal toys while sitting on the potty...

And here she is drawing on the chalkboard while sitting on the potty...

And here she is—finally asleep—after a long day with no accidents (at least up to this point):

On an unrelated, but completely related, note, she got a cute set of underwear from one of our neighbours up the street. They're great little training pants because not only do they have multiple layers—they also have a little PUL layer that prevents her accidents from leaking everywhere. They're not like all-in-one diapers; they're definitely more for little accidents than for a day's business. But they seem to be just great as little training pants. And they're so cute! 

She's got some with clouds and rainbows, some with owls, and this little pink pair with bunnies on them:

When Andrew saw her walking around in these yesterday he said, "Why does she have underwear with teeth on them? Like...of all things to put on underwear...???"

"Teeth?" I asked. "Those are bunnies!"

In Andrew's defense, he's had a reminder card from the orthodontist on his desk for a week now and it has a line of dancing teeth on it and...I can see how they could be mistaken for bunnies (vise versa). Still, it was a pretty funny mistake!