1 - My friends - I see wisdom and faithfulness in my friends as they parent their kids. I see the mom do something or the child do something and I think, "Hmmmm. I should probably try that too. I haven't even thought about encouraging/teaching Karis to do (that)."
2 - Karis - A lot of times she shows me when she's ready for something. I remember the first time she responded to me when I corrected her or gave her an instruction and I said, "Ok?" She said "K." I thought, ...Hmmm, I should probably start consistently making her respond to me verbally when I say something.
Well, with the whole subject of potty training, I have felt at a loss. I don't know how to do this. When is she ready? I don't want to start too soon, etc. Then over the last few months, she does these things...
She brings me the changing pad and a diaper and lays down in front of me for a diaper change.
She helps Bear go potty.
She wants her Baby to have a diaper change first.
Well, I am no parenting expert, but I can see some signs! :) So, I decided to jump in and try it with the book, "Toilet Training in Less than a Day". Amazingly, she is doing SO GOOD! I am now a believer! I have truly been surprised at how fast she's getting it. I know we are just in the beginning but she has a great start. We had an intense morning of training Wednesday. She had 5 accidents that day, 2 of which she came to me saying "Potty" but just didn't make it in time. Yesterday or today she hasn't had an accident yet! So, we'll keep encouraging and helping. We haven't left the house yet, which we will tonight to visit friends and we'll go to church Sunday, so we'll see how it goes.
Well, those are the successes. Here are a couple mishaps (and laughs) of potty training.
The first day she pooped in the potty after peeing a few times. She just kept looking at it and telling me to look at it. She was so proud, but she wouldn't pick up the pot from the little potty to dump it in the toilet. I told her, "Karis, poo-poo goes in the big potty just like pee-pee. Put the poo-poo in the big potty." Well, such a good listener she is, she reached right down there and picked up that poo-poo and turned around to hand it to me!
"NO, NO KARIS! YUCKY, YUCKY!" So we washed hands good after that!
Then yesterday, she was attempting to put the seat back on the little potty after dumping it. She gets it turned around a lot and gets tired of it and just wants me to do it. I've really been trying to encourage her to do it herself. So, as she was trying, I just left the bathroom to leave her to finish. She came into the kitchen a few seconds later, holding up the potty seat with her face in the hole, saying "Look, Mommy." Again, "NO, NO KARIS! YUCKY, YUCKY!"
:) Doesn't parenting stretch us and make us laugh and teach us patience and teach us how to be a teacher??
I love it.
