So I'm Mrs. Smith... Now What?: 8/1/14

It's finally happened! I never thought it would! My child is so stubborn, lol!

Evie is so determined and driven that she has done a LOT of things early; walking, talking, etc., when she has her mind set to do something, she will NOT stop until she's done it. So, I was very interested to see how her personality would effect the whole business of getting her potty trained... And turns out, her drive was actually a detriment in the potty department. Figures, haha.

She's been really interested in the potty for the last year or so. She loved reading books about potty training and watching episodes of shows with potty themes, but she never seemed to really want to try it herself. We got a potty seat that attached to our toilet and could be flipped up when not in use when she first started being interested, but that ended up being a flop. She would sit sometimes, but never went and the stupid thing was a huge pain.

Then a few weeks before Declan was born I bought her a little potty (like in her book). She sat on that one too, but even if I knew she had to go, she wouldn't do it on the potty, she'd wait until she got her diaper back on. I didn't really want to push the subject while huge and pregnant or when I had a newborn, so we didn't get serious until the beginning of June.

And we tried.

I read blog post after blog post guaranteeing results with their "3 day" methods. She was interested again and I was so sure we could do it. We bought panties and got her all excited about a "potty party", with chips and cookies and juice boxes. The party was fun, but it was still so tough to get her to even just sit on the potty. The next day we had a bunch of accidents and the next she refused to try at all. The more I tried to convince her, the more she dug in her heels. We had a bag of awesome little prizes and made a reward chart; I was even reduced to offering to buy her an app for the kindle every time she went potty... aaaand nothing. She was not enticed by any of it.

Frustrating? Yes, yes it was.

You see, the problem with Evie is that she has a lot that she wants to be doing. She's got so much that she's driven to accomplish and she just can't be bothered to stop what she's doing to use the potty every single time she needs to pee. This is also why I can't get her to nap no matter what I try.

*sigh*

Anyway, I was feeling pretty hopeless, and I will admit, had sort of given in to the idea that my child would be wearing diapers til she graduated highschool, but then, about a week or two ago, I was struck with some sudden inspiration:

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the mother of all potty training incentives:

The Elsa dress.

This is my child who runs around singing "Let it Go" for about 60% of her waking hours and will answer to the name Elsa (and occasionally Anna). As soon as she saw it, I had her rapt attention. She immediately wanted to know what she had to do to get that dress.

At first I tried telling her that if she did all her peepees and poopies in the potty for three whole days, she could have it. She ran straight to the potty, sat there until she produced something, and then wanted her dress. I tried explaining the deal to her, but she just got more and more frustrated with the whole thing and I could tell it wasn't going to work. So we had a slight change of plan.

Instead, I told her that every time she went in the potty, she could have a turn with the Elsa dress. After her turn was up we hung the dress up on her window in her bedroom, so she could always see it, but couldn't reach it (though she did try climbing up there a few times, haha).

The first day, it worked wonders! She WANTED to go potty because she WANTED that dress! She needed it so she could sing "snow glows white on the mountain tonight" (as she calls it). She would try all the time just so she could get a turn. It was really cute.

The next day I kept asking her if she had to go, and she would get mad at me every time I asked. I was super scared that we were going to have a bunch of accidents because she wouldn't try when I asked her to, but turns out, she really just didn't have to go and was annoyed with me bothering her. When she had to go, she ran to the potty and did her thing.

After a week with a couple little accidents here and there, I'm willing to call it, she's officially potty trained!!

I am so proud of my hardworking Evie girl ;)

In our SIX years of marriage, we've been through FIVE moves:

Good ol' A1207, Our tiny bedroom in my parents' house, D1260, 2033 N, and Cherry Lane :)

We've been through FOUR vehicles of varying reliability:


Ok, so I couldn't find any pictures of, say, the one car where we had to bungee cord the driver's side door closed... But here are the two that have featured most prominently in our relationship: the 1986 Toyota Celica and our very first car purchase, the 2008 Kia Rio.