It all started about three weeks before her 3rd birthday, when, out of the blue, she tells me she wants to go try the potty. (Sure, darlin', we've been down that road many-a-times.) So I tell her to have at it. Lo and behold, that little stinker pees in the potty like a champ. I proceed with caution.
Five days later, it would have been safe to say she was using the potty full time. But on day Six, she started going in her Pull-ups all the time. So much for being home free. We wrestled back and forth over the weekend and I was about to throw in the towel and let her go to college in diapers. We ran out of pull-ups on the day before her 3rd birthday. Sometime back in February, I had told her we could stop arguing about it and I would leave her alone, but when she turned 3, she had to wear panties and she could not go to school unless she was using the potty all the time. Wouldn't you know it, her school was on Spring Break the week after her birthday- I don't believe that could have worked out any better.
I also straight up bribed her. I told her if she used the potty we could put a sticker on her potty chart to earn, get this, a trip to the toy store. Originally, I really meant we could just go in there and she could look around. (The owner of the local toy store loves when BigM comes to visit because she is enthralled by everything- you can show her a piece of lint and BigM says, "Wow, I wuve dat! Tan I hold it?") But the more I thought about it, if she would just stop going in her diapers, I would buy her anything in the whole store. So we made yet another deal. Everytime she went on the potty, I would give her a quarter and she could use her money to buy something. Right away, she said, "I want dat toy dinosaur." I personally had never taken her to the toy store in town, but she has been there quite a few times with Lolli. Okay, you're not a boy, but I will buy you a toy dinosaur if I can stop changing your diapers. Whatever you want, just go on the potty, already! And this dinosaur was quickly named (this should get a drum roll)
SONNY DIRT REX
So the combo of being 3 years old, wearing real big-girl panties, not going to school when all her friends were (stand back, the lightening is about to strike me down!) and the promise of a brand new toy dinosaur made all the difference in the world. No more diapers. Happy Mommy.
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