She’s the best pooper we know

“Wipe, wipe, wipe yourself

Always front to back

Carefully, carefully

Now you’ve got the knack.”

What? You haven’t heard that song before? Try this one…

“Tra la da bum de ay,

I push my pants away,

And while I’m standing there,

Pull down my underwear!”

Oh, you’ve got to love it. If you have never heard these songs you are really missing out. You can buy this potty training video for $1 on ebay. What a bargain. It’s really old and cheesy, and I love it!

So today is Mary’s designated toilet training day. This is my 5th time doing this and I consider myself quite the cocky expert. Of course she could prove me wrong, but I think I’m going to take my chances and brag.

Toilet training day is a celebration in our house. In fact, as we prepared for this day, I was happily surprised by the older kids who would say things like, “I remember my toilet training day, I got animal crackers”, another would say, “I got sponge bob cookies”, another said, “we sang 5 little speckled frogs” another, “I got power rangers underwear” and the list goes on.

The week before toilet training, we watch the potty time video over, and over, and over again. The 2 year old (I did my girls at 2 and boys at 3) then gets very familiar with how it’s all done and is really excited to start. The day before toilet training we pull out the anatomically correct toilet training doll and talk about what’s going to happen the next day, we also pull out the big girl underwear, and then, best of all, we go shopping.

Mary and I went shopping yesterday and spent $20 on treats. It was great. We buy lots of dry and salty things like crackers, cookies, chips, peanuts, cereal, popcorn etc, and then we choose three or four bottles of different colored juices and some straws (kids drink more through a straw) Here is Mary’s stash…

This morning, we ate breakfast like normal, and then our training began. I always make sure I am one on one with the toilet training child so I take my other kids to a babysitter for the day. Luckily I have Nanna here, so Mary and I confined ourselves to the master bedroom and bathroom to get to work. We went through the steps of toileting on Mary’s doll, then Mary had to show that she understood those steps by teaching her doll how to do it. After that, the diaper comes off and we start pigging out. (I couldn’t let her go through this experience alone now could I?) She was so proud to be wearing big girl underwear.

We start with lots of treats, get thirsty and have lots of drinks. We repeat that cycle lots of times, then we go into the bathroom, sit on the toilet and read books together. It’s really fun. Mary “accidentally” goes to the bathroom without realising it because she’s sitting there anyway, but that way she gets to feel what it’s like. We make a huge deal out of her success and then we ran into the family room to spread the good news. Mary’s brothers and sisters jump for joy, give her a hug, and sing one of her favorite potty training songs! Even Nanna joined in, you really can’t help but feel the joy!

Then it’s back into the bathroom until she has done a #1 and #2 on the toilet (yes this post is so detailed that I will resort to numbers to avoid writing more toilet words) When she’s done both, we come out of the bathroom and practice “listening to our bodies” all the while eating treats and drinking lots of juice. We read some more, watch some Baby Einstein movies, and try not to melt in the heat.

We started at 7am this morning and it is now 1pm and Mary is asleep taking her nap. She has had NO accidents yet today. I do anticipate some, all of my other kids have had accidents on their toilets training day and for a couple of days afterwards, but I do not go back to diapers, and I do not do pull ups. I’m assuming she may have problems going through the night. We are going to have her sleep in our room for a few nights since her bedroom is the farthest from the bathroom, so fingers crossed.

Well, that’s about as exciting as things have got around here today. You may think I’m really lame for writing a post all about toilet training, but if you managed to read the whole thing and get to this point, you’re just as lame as me!!!!! Signing off with another song…

“She is a super dooper pooper

She knows when she has to go

Take a bow, she’s a big girl now,

She’s the best pooper we know!”