1 down 2 to go....

In the busyness of everyday life, I forgot to write about an AMAZING happening  in our household.  Maddox is potty trained <------- yes that is past tense as in we are mostly DONE!

From the beginning, I did not want to start potty training at all until the kids were ready.  We had just brought Ridley home and I just didn't want to tackle that task until there were definite signs of readiness.

I was shocked when one day the teachers at school asked if I would start putting Maddox in pull-ups because she was very interested in going potty.  We immediately bought pull-ups and got vamped to start the process (potty seats, treats, etc.).  Around June, we started full force and Maddox was all into getting rewarded.  We never went into hardcore training (taking her every 10 minutes, really pushing her to go), because I just wanted her to take it at her pace and frankly, I have two other kids to take care of so making this a huge burden wasn't something I wanted to take on at this point.

Maddox started regressing in July and August and really not wanting to use the potty at all and then went through a phase where she only wanted to use the potty as a way to dictate what she wanted to do.  Example:  It's time for bath...."I need to go potty"...It's time for bed...."I need to go potty".  During this time I got really frustrated.  I had to keep reminding myself that she is only 2 1/2 and that she started this process and would eventually take further interest in it.

As a way to get her back on track, I made a sticker chart and we went and picked out panties together (blue being her favorite color).  We started on the weekend and put her in panties everyday.  She would get a sticker for number 1 and an M&M for number 2.  We spoke with the school and they were all about helping us, so after two weeks of panties on at home we started sending her to school in panties. We had only 2 number 1 accidents at school (1 during nap & 1 out on the playground without enough time to get inside)

At around the middle of September, Maddox just started going.  We only had 1 or 2 accidents.  Even when we leave the house and are out and about she always tells us when she needs to go.  We still have her in pull-ups at night time and nap, but a large majority of the time she wakes up dry and immediately goes to the potty.

I'm so proud of her.

Now we are waiting for Lukas to get ready.  He's definitely showing interest and has had success once or twice, but still hasn't really decided that he wants to be apart of this whole heatedly. (I have heard boys are harder than girls) So we are 1 down and 2 to go in our house..WOO HOO :)