It is a glorious day, indeed.  My two year old has sat on the potty and made the poo poo and the pee pee right inside it!  I look back on other days of delightful celebration and wonder at the dullness of them compared to this moment.  I can’t remember feeling this enlightened, alive and overwhelmingly proud.  My college graduation, I felt ripped off.  Losing baby weight, I realized I was just going to get pregnant again and gain it back.  Buying a house, well, feels a little like my college graduation, expensive and looking ahead at thirty years worth of loan payments.  But today, may be the greatest feeling of pride I have felt in a very long time.

She was seated on her Dora potty, watching the Elmo’s Potty Time dvd, and I smelled poop.  It was that distinctive tinge of stinky that got me very excited.  I squealed with joy, got her up and wiped her bottom, very impressed with the full contents of Dora’s latrine.  We walked together in our march of victory to the bathroom to flush her accomplishments down the sewer.  I, being pregnant and highly susceptible to smells, gagged and dry heaved as I dumped the dump, and praised her all the while.  It was a remarkable scene.

My husband’s cousin told us the way she potty trained her four kiddies was to let them walk around half naked until they felt uncomfortable wetting themselves.  Then the potty became a saving grace rather than a scary monster hole.  She also suggested shampooing the carpets after the two week debacle.  We’re getting new carpets in our apartment after we move, so I figured the two weeks till the moving day was perfect time to institute “Operation Potty.” 

I’m not into forcing anything.  I really want it to be as natural a transition as possible.  That being said, I am not above rewards that include chocolate, balloons, ice cream, hugs, kisses, and undying praises.  She got pretty excited when I showed her the big kid potty dance.  You take your fists and alternate them out into the air above your head while twisting your waist and singing, “Big kids go in the potty!  You’re a big kid now!”  (Feel free to introduce any kind of music or moves that inspire you to celebrate your first poo poo in the potty.  The better the moves, the more excited your kiddie will be!)

Other successes I’ve heard from others in the potty trained world, (the enviable PTW.)

            -Use a doll to show your child how to pull up and down pants, before and after potty usage.  The kids feel like they can be a “helper” to the doll to show her how it’s done.

            -Sit your child on the potty in front of her favorite program, or read books with her for awhile.  Pretty soon, the concept of using the potty becomes more enjoyable and normal.  This also helps if you can’t be with your kids all day.  Make it the same time every morning, or when they make the poo poo.  If you have limited time parameters to work in, it’s more important to pay attention to their potty patterns.

            -This one is a variation of the running around half naked for half a day.  My sister in law told me you can train your child to control their pee by saying, “Pssss…” every time they pee on the carpet.  Then, when it’s potty time, the same sound applies.  This is good to start before potty training time, usually before age two.

No matter which process you use, remember the four P’s

                        Patience

                        Praise

                        Persistence

                        Patterns

Kiddies excel under these parameters.  Actually, we all do.

Now I know, this being the first day, that the battle will be long.  The accomplishments will be scattered, and we will have this wonderful moment to remember and carry us through the wet pants and other accidents.

Still, I am very optimistic.  I didn’t graduate college in diapers, so I know, one day, she will be done with them as well.  She’ll enter the world of the PTW, and join us.