"P" is for Potty Training...or Patience...or Prozac

Autumn has been interested in her "Big Girl Potty" since she was around 18 months old. She's never been scared of it or intimidated by it. Her babies sit on the potty, Elmo sits on the potty, she hides toys in the potty. She does everything except actually going to the bathroom in the potty.

We have tried not to push Autumn into potty training. When she began understanding what a "Potty" was, we took her to the store and let her pick one out. We would ask her if she would like to try going to the bathroom on her potty. If she said "Yes", great! We would go through the motions and let her see what it felt like to sit on the potty like a "Big Girl". If she said "No", we would ask again at another time. This went on for months.

A couple months after Autumn turned two, I decided to take a different approach. One weekend, I went to the store and bought her a pack of Cinderella underware. I brought them home, let her open them up and explained to her what they were. She immediately wanted to put them on. I told her that if she was going to wear underware like a "Big Girl" then she had to use the potty like a "Big Girl" too. I set a timer, and every ten minutes when the timer went off Autumn would "try" to go to the potty. Eventually, she asked me if she could put her diaper back on. So on it went.

This past weekend, Steve was getting Autumn ready to take a bath and asked her if she would like to try to go in the "Big Potty" (the regular toilet as opposed to the toddler toilet we bought her), she said "Yes" and try she did. She tried so hard she actually went! We were ecstatic! Hand clapping, cheering, dogs barking, the whole nine yards! I thought, "Finally, she's done it! It should be all down hill from here!"

Well, Autumn has yet to go in the potty again, although not for lack of trying. I know it's still early, and we are still continuing to try to have a relaxed approach to it, but I really thought that after that first time it would click. Wishful, naive thinking, I guess.

My hope is that Autumn will be potty trained before Baby #2 makes his/her arrival. But, as with all things, it will happen when it happens. At least she's gone once, right?