Have potty, will travel

It's time for a potty training update here. Things are going pretty well right now (knock on wood). Emil has pooped in the potty twice today, and peed a few times. He's only peed in his diaper once today. Esme has peed in the potty all day, but did poop in her diaper once, too. There was a sweet moment just now when I was pottying Emil, and Esme said, "I want to go potty too, like Emil!" Too bad she had pooped in her diaper about five minutes before making that announcement. I guess you can't win them all.

I'm not sure what caused the recent change in Esme's desire to use the potty. It could be any number of things. A natural progression of maturity, seeing her baby brother use the potty, switching to cloth when at home. Who knows? All I know is that two weeks ago, when I asked Esme if she wanted to use the potty she would answer with a resolute no. I would reply that it would make mommy very happy, to which she answered, "But you already very happy, Mommy."

Then one day, it was like a switch was flipped in her little noggin. Suddenly, she announced, "I use the potty!" And lo and behold, she did, and has several times since then.

I know many of you aren't as interested in a toddler's potty training as you may be in the infant's, so here's the quick update on Emil.

I still haven't read the book on Infant Potty Training, but what we're doing is pretty simple. I just try to remember to give Emil the opportunity to go in the potty frequently throughout the day. His little body has a natural reaction to the "pssss" sound now, and as soon as I hold him over his little Baby Bjorn potty, he lets it go if he has to. The hardest thing is me remembering to get him there. On busy days, he goes way more often in his diaper. But on days that I'm on the ball and able to do it, he goes mostly on the potty. My hope is that by doing this now, he will make the transition to potty much earlier than Esme. My goal is to have him out of diapers by the time he's 2.

We're going to be traveling in Europe for most of the month of June, and as the date quickly approaches, I'm wondering how our potty training will survive this trip. Will we be crossing the ocean with a potty in our luggage? Most likely. God knows how we'll pack for all of us for a month and still be able to make it through the airport and to and from hotels and apartments and on trains and into rental cars. But if Esme can be mostly potty trained by then, I'll be one happy mama.

The Potty Training Mantra

Esme will not be in diapers at age 10. Esme will not be in diapers at age 10. This is my mantra these days, because as slow going as the potty training stage is, I have to remind myself that it will not last forever.

Truth is, we've made progress lately. She's put an Elmo sticker on the special "potty calendar" everyday. Problem is that she thinks once a day is all she has to go. Ask her if she wants to go a second time, and you get the, "I do it tomorrow" statement in a matter of fact voice. That is if she doesn't say, "I already went potty."

We tried to up the ante by baking a special potty cake as Dr. Phil suggests to celebrate her efforts and telling her she only gets to eat a piece after she uses the potty. She even has the doll that goes potty, and we lavish praise on the doll to show Esme how good it is to go potty. But still she draws the line at once a day.

We have a special potty training book that she loves and only gets to read when sitting on the potty. And following the advice of another mom I know, we let Esme run around naked for days at a time, to help her learn to use her potty, but that just caused her to throw a fit for her diaper when she had to go. "I need to put on a diaper now, please!"

In short, I feel like I've tried all the things they recommend in books.

So we're taking a page from our friend Chandra and her daughter Chase's method: Jelly Bellies. I'm going to introduce them tonight as special potty treats. Wish us luck! And repeat after me: Esme will not be in diapers at age 10. Esme will not be in diapers at age 10.