Our big Little Girl

There is a big Little Girl under our roof!  

Emma is now officially out of her diapers and into her big girl undies.  I cannot believe she is now potty trained.  Part of me grieves this, since I quickly realize how fast she is growing and how time really does fly by.

The proud girl going potty.

I will make a disclaimer in saying that she is still using diapers at nap time and bed time (and don't plan on changing that for a while still).  Also, she has not done #2 in the toilet successfully yet.  Also, she has not had an accident-free day yet.  Some may argue and say she is not potty trained yet, but in my book she is!

So how did all of this begin?

Back in June Emma became enamored with her new toilet her friend J had passed down to her.  I was 7 months pregnant and did not want to go through the trouble of potty training her only to have her regress when LB was born.  But she was ready!  And excited... and would continually ask to be placed on her potty multiple times.

She also seemed very aware of both wet and dirty diapers, and would continually ask to be changed.  

And finally, the straw that broke the camel's back -- Emma has always suffered with really BAD diaper rashes.  I mean -- us alone kept the makers of Desitin in business over the past 2 years :)

So LB was born, and I knew the time was quickly approaching.  I had read a few things and talked to a few friends, and more or less decided on a method -- I was going to put her in her undies all day, with the exception of nap time and bed time, and have her learn "from her mistakes."  

I was really unmotivated and did not want to do it (I was already washing diapers for LB, so extra diapers from Emma did not add much to my to-do list), but I figured this was the best time to do it.  Because of LB's young age, we are still pretty homebound, and people are still bringing us meals.  Plus, the weather is still pretty mild, so she can easily walk around half naked all day and not freeze.

I approached potty training with the mindset that if it did not work, I was going to forget about it and not try again until Spring.

I put on her undies last Monday and she had ONE accident.  After that, every single accident we have had since after, she has caught herself half through and stopped herself, then finished in her toilet.  She gets really excited with herself when she goes potty, and claps and celebrates with us.  We would give her two m&ms after each successful potty, and that really encouraged her.  

Yesterday we went on our first outing with no diaper on, and she did really well.  Today we even went to Chick-fil-a and had her play in the play area with other children with no diaper on.  I was a little nervous, but she did very well.  At one point she did ask to go potty, but I was so proud of her for holding herself and waiting for me to take her to the bathroom.