Potty Train

So since my last post, long ago, Zoa has learned to use the potty. It all started a little over three weeks ago. She was displaying all the telltale "signs" of toilet training readiness you read about: talking about going potty, going 3 to 4 hours in-between wet diapers and waking up with a dry diaper, but despite of all this, I could not get her interested in sitting on the toilet. So, I started bribing her with one M&M for sitting on the toilet. It worked in the sense that it got her interested in sitting on it. However, Zoa's tremendous craving for sweets caused major meltdowns when she received only one measly M&M, so I quickly switched tactics.

We moved to offering a sticker for going potty. At this point, she actually started peeing on the potty. After that, the process went very quickly. Within a week, we had stopped offering any sort of reward for going potty, and she was peeing on the potty pretty reliably. The next week she started wearing big-girl underwear and pooping on the potty, and she has not looked back. So, in about 2 weeks she was almost completely potty trained. She still wears a diaper at night in case of accidents, but I figure we can probably get rid of that in the next month or so.

It is great not to have to change or buy diapers anymore. Plus, Brian and I were musing last week about how funny it is to fold her tiny Elmo and Curious George underwear. However, it also makes us realize how fast she is growing up.

She talks non-stop nowadays and actually makes sense almost all of the time. It makes me long for the days when she would wake up saying, "Oh, no, no, no, I lost my sun," or when she would tell us, "Zoa's a girl, Dada's a boy, Mama's a job." I am sure that she will come up with equally endearing catch phrases in the future, but it is hard to see my old favorites fade from use.

Here are some recent pics. One is her sitting on her little potty hiding behind the shower curtain. Zoa always tells us she needs privacy on the toilet, and this is her favorite way to get it.