THE SKINNER'S

THE SKINNER'S

Sunday, February 28, 2010

POTTY TRAINING PART 2 - DAY 1



IT'S TIME!! WE'VE ARRIVED AGAIN!!! IT'S TIME TO GIVE IT ANOTHER WHIRL!!
Yes, we decided to try potty training again......with a boy and a girl......on the same day.....in the same apartment......

So, we gathered the necessities:
#1. A bucket of carpet cleaner and a brush to clean up any "accidents" that may happen along the way.



#2. A timer to beep and remind us it's time to use the potty.



#3. M&M's just in case the "pee pee and poo poo dance" is not sufficient enough reward to encourage the children to want to have success again.



THE METHOD

After consultation with many moms who've potty trained at least one child I decided on the method that I wanted to try first. So, the plan was to not use pull-ups but to go cold turkey and use training pants. The kids aren't bothered enough about being wet in their diapers to warrant a change in behavior and besides I tend to be an all or nothing thinker anyway, so why not go all in!
So last Saturday morning we watched the Elmo potty video in diapers. Then they got a "surprise" present of training underpants (the kind that have a little extra padding to catch the drips). The kids were so excited and they got to choose the ones they wanted to wear first! Then we sat on the potty only long enough to read ONE book. Now, at times I would choose a long book to give them more time, but in their minds, they only got one book each visit to the potty.
Now, the PLAN was to have them sit on the potty, have the pee pee come out, then re-set the timer for 30 minutes and try again. Simple enough, right?? Well, it was a good plan......but there' s always some problem-solving that must happen along the way, right?? So trial number one on the potty got no results from Caleb or Alethia. So I figured I'd set the timer for 15 minutes and then have them try again.

Here's the result of that tactic.....



No problem for us Skinner's though, we had the carpet cleaner ready with the scrub brush!!

So after both kids missed the potty 2-3 times each before naptime we weren't sure which way to go. Neither one of them seemed very interested. At least not interested enough to stop playing and sit on some pink and green froggy every 30 minutes. We didn't feel like it was fair to them to stop because we didn't want to confuse them since all we talked about all morning was the potty and underpants. And we didn't want to send the message that if you don't succeed in something the first time you try then you quit. So, Chris and I decided to try again after naptime. And don't you know, Alethia woke up and said, "pee pee comin!!!". We scooped her up and put her on the potty just in time for the pee pee to make it in the froggy!!! We did a pee pee dance and everybody yelled and clapped and hugged and then, per Daddy's suggestion, she got the ultimate reward........AN M&M......and she could choose ANY COLOR THAT SHE WANTED!!!!

Now it was game-on for the Skinner's. Alethia had no more accidents the entire rest of the day!

They both were still learning but all in all it was a successful first day!

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