It's Potty Time (& other Christmas Pics)

Day 1 of potty training has been tiring. But there has been some success.

This morning I read back to my first potty-training day with Micah. I was reminded how easily he potty-trained (initially anyway - we had some major regression a little later). So, I was a bit discouraged when we went through so many pairs of underwear this morning with Keziah. I know that Micah was a little bit older, plus he initiated training when he told me out of the blue that he had to pee and proceeded to do so when I put him on the potty.

Keziah was starting a little bit more "cold turkey". She used to pee and even poop for us on the potty occasionally, but hasn't been as willing lately. And I didn't want to push it for fear of making her hate the potty.

But I built it up for her today and off we went - straight into panties and drinking lots of juice. But all we had for most of the morning was wet soggy pants. I wished Keziah would have just a small bit of success so that I could show her the "potty party" we would throw for her - a sticker and a treat and a potty song and lots of praise. So, mid-morning I decided to make her dolly "pee" on the potty. We don't have a doll who actually "pees" so I had a great idea to place her dolly on the potty while hiding a water-filled ball behind the dolly's back. I squeezed the ball once the doll was positioned and, from Keziah's viewpoint, it truly looked like the doll was peeing. I proceeded to feed the dolly a treat, give her a sticker and lots of praise. Keziah was fascinated and we did this a few more times - letting the dolly drink a bit, taking her pee and rewarding her. It didn't yield immediate results, though - and I was afraid Keziah was way more interested in playing this new game than understanding what the implications were for herself.




Then, during lunch she drank quite a bit of juice, so once she was done eating I said we would go sit on the potty. She was eager to try at that point. Her underwear was already damp when we got there but she managed to save a good portion of her pee for the potty. Yay! We threw a party for her and Keziah was SO proud of herself. We tried one more time before her nap and another success! Things were beginning to look up. I put her in a diaper for her nap and she woke up wet, but I wasn't surprised. She was successful again on the potty in the afternoon, but I was still the intitiator. Finally at 4:30 she said, "Mommy, pee!" We ran to the bathroom and she went again! I was feeling much better about our day.

I can't help but think her little bum is so cute in those panties :)

She had an accident in her high chair at supper and then a poop accident about an hour later. We could tell she needed to go for awhile, but - just like Micah - was afraid to try and kept asking for a diaper. Oh well, we'll celebrate the small victories. I know she'll figure it out in time.

Notice the strategically placed graphic - hee hee :)

I noticed that she can hold her bladder for much longer periods than Micah (he still pees every 10 minutes if he's had a full cup of juice). So, she didn't have as many opportunities to succeed as he did in his first day of training. But, I'm thankful, since it will mean less trips to the potty in the long run :)


On to the week of Christmas... The weather last week was a little crazy. More snow than we've ever seen here at one time. Our Christmas eve church services were cancelled and we decided to spend 2 nights at Erik's parents from Christmas eve to Boxing Day to avoid extra driving.

The grandkids opening their John-Deere themed presents from Great-Grandpa & Grandma Toews (aka Oma & Opa):

Erik took the kids out one afternoon there and got some fun pictures of them in the snow. We still got even more snow after these pictures were taken.



Enjoying some hot chocolate afterwards:

Keziah was pretty pooped when she came in and Auntie Kristi was lucky enough to be holding her when she fell asleep:

Back here at our place, Erik and Micah shovelled all the snow from our patio into one huge pile.

Now it's been raining and the temps are in the positive range so we are left with a soggy mess outside. I guess that was winter!

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow's potty-training will continue to be successful!