Potty Time!

We got E a potty chair a couple of months ago to get her used to the idea of going potty in something other then her diaper. She uses it as a step stool, a place to store toys, and a place to sit. Anything but the actual function that it was intended for. Tom and I try to ask her several times during the day if she needs to go potty, occassionally she will say, "Yes" so we would go sit on the potty chair for what seemed like eternity, until Ellie would yell, "All Done!", then we could go about our day. Nothing ever happened, but we weren't going to be forceful or make her sit there until she did go.

Last week I thought we need to offer some "incentives" to use the potty, because clearly talking about the potty, showing her how to use it, and telling her, "Big girls go potty in here" was not working. So we put her favorite monkey book in the bathroom and a container (hermetically sealed and stored away) of mini M&M's. Ellie quickly learned that if she said that she had to go potty, she had to go sit on the potty chair and we would read her the monkey book over and over and over and over and over and over again. Then when she decided she was "All Done!", she would get (2) mini M&M's for listening to a story with her pants around her ankles while sitting on a squishy seat.

Well, tonight, Ellie decided that she had to go potty. So I rushed her in there, double checked that she hadn't already gone (learned this one the hard way), and set her on the potty chair. Half way thru our second time of 5 little Monkeys she stood up and yelled "All Done!" Sure enough - she had gone! Needless to say, by the reaction that Tom and I gave her you would think that she discovered a far off planet or a million dollars in the bathroom cabinets. She got a lot more then (2) mini M&M's this time.

You are probably wondering, what kind of sick twisted person captures their child's first potty chair experience. Well, I decided to capture the moment for a couple of reasons:

a). I couldn't come up with anything better to post on the blog this week.

b). I needed hard evidence so when she decides to never go potty in there again until she is (3) I will have proof that she did it once.

and

c). The pure enjoyment I will get out of showing this picture to her future boyfriends when they come over to take her out on dates.

Be thankful it was only pee, and that I didn't post it during dinner time.