Officially Potty Trained (around the house)!!!!!!

All kids have different things they tend to focus more on. With some kids it is very obvious, while other kids are more balanced. Most of Jessica's friends are very verbal. While Jessica falls well within the normal range of known words for her age group, she is much, much more interested in how things work. She could care less what its name is and what it says. She just wants to know what it does! I believe she got this from her father. Although I too enjoyed taking things apart as a child, I also loved to talk (that may have been an understatement)! At any rate, while Jessica does not talk as much as many of her friends, she has learned to do all kinds of things her friends can't do: climbing a wooden ladder to slide down a big slide, opening doors, and our latest potty training! We have been particularly anxious to get her potty trained because she has so much trouble with heat rash (for 6 months out of the year at least)!

Starting at 16 months we set out a potty chair and started encouraging her to sit on it. Jessica loves to be clapped for so of course we had to do lots of clapping any time she sat on her potty. One time she accidentally went to the bathroom on her potty which was exciting for us, but she didn't really make the connection. Then we didn't do anything for a few months. When we came back to it, we would take her to the potty every 15 minutes (which only lasted for a few hours one day). But we continued to encourage her to use it. Eventually this weekend something clicked, and she got it! She hasn't had an accident all week around the house!!! We really didn't spend that much time or effort potty training. We spent a couple hours on 3 different Saturdays, but I think the big thing was making her aware of the potty and nudging her without pushing her.

There has also been no expense in potty training her (Well, except for lots and lots of paper towels!!!). The potty chair is a hand-me down. I thought we would be using candy to encourage her to use the potty, but it turned out to be unnecessary! We also have not bought her training pants or underwear yet. Currently she just runs around the house in a short dress and turtleneck and goes to her potty whenever she needs to. (The awesome part is that I rarely have to ask her if she needs to go potty! She remembers herself!) Later I do plan to get her either some training pants or underwear depending on what we are ready for at that point. However, I am currently happy as a lark to have her potty trained around the house so we can stand to wait on the training pants and underwear a little longer! We will also be taking her potty with us when we travel for Christmas. We will still be using some diapers, but it should make cloth diapering easier while traveling! So "Yeah, Jessica!!!!!" 21 months old and potty trained (around the house)!!!