Potty Time!

A few weeks ago, Grandma C found a Dora the Explorer training potty for Emma.We placed it in our powder room but didn't pressure Emma at all. We've been trying to make her aware of when she has a dirty diaper so that she can let someone know since she gets such bad diaper rashes, but we weren't trying to actively potty train, just gradually introduce the concept. A couple times, mostly before bath time, we've taken her diaper off and sat her on the potty just to see if we would get lucky but nothing materialized. One day before work, Kurt tried to see if she would use it and one day last week before bath time we tried again. While the potty wasn't filled, Emma did sit on it and appeared to by "trying" and patiently sat on the potty for several minutes.

This evening, I thought that she might have to go, so I took her in, sat her down, and grabbed a book. We sat there for a while...and she went! She was very good and content the whole time, but I think she might have to get used to sitting down to go. I guess this will just take practice. Of course we did lots of cheering about how she is such a big girl! After we got her re-diapered and everything cleaned up, she wandered back into the bathroom and sat down again. We told her that it was just for potty time and to come back out to play. Turns out she went again! I guess she wasn't completely done the first time. We made a big deal over this as well since she knew what to do.

While we know that almost 17 months is pretty young for consistent potty use, we are thinking of getting some pull-ups for times when we're just going to be in the house and have time for practice and messes.