Step Two - Leave the Diapers Behind

Ok, so the first day of no work, no daycare and potty training!

I figured the first challenge was that we need to teach Millie what pee and poo was. How would she even know if it was always hidden in her diaper?

On the first day, after she got up I did not dress her and left her wearing only a t-shirt. If it is winter, turn up the heat! No underwear, no pants, no diaper, no socks. I started giving her a mix of orange juice and water (a real treat in our house). She loved it and drank lots.

Good start since it means she had to pee lots. We stayed most of the morning in a room with a hardwood floor. Easy to mop up and I was able to watch her. I wanted to catch her peeing. Outside would work pretty good too!

When she would pee, I would say "peepee" Millie, "peepee". Before picking it up, we would look at the pee puddle and identify it as "peepee". I did not act excited, nor angry. Just matter-of-fact as if we were talking about a book, a chair or a dog. I would pick it up with a cloth and a mop, and we would continue playing.

At the same time, I started to implement "potty time" and "observation time". :-) Here is what this meant to us:

Potty Time - It is not too much to ask for a child to sit still for 2 minutes. Think about a car ride. They are strapped in their car seats for much longer than that. It is not cruel, it is necessary. Same thing for potty time.

We started making Millie sit on her potty for 2 minutes every half hour. I would say "potty time" and sit her on her potty and start the timer. Sometimes she would scream and kick. I would still put her on the potty. Sometimes she would scream the whole 2 minutes. Didn't matter. Like a time-out. She was only done when either the timer went off, or she peed.

She got used to it and would just sit and wait for the timer. I would often give her a book to help pass the time, but tried not to play with her too much. I didn't want her to think the potty was a game.

IMPORTANT - In this first step, although it would have been great had she gone, the goal of potty time was just to get her used to the idea of sitting on the potty regularily and that it is a part of life. NOT TO ACTUALLY PEE! It took us 4 days before she did her first pee in the potty.

Observation Time - Everytime either Gino or I would go to the toilet, we would bring Millie's potty and Millie into the bathroom with us. We would have her watch as we peed or poo'd into the toilet. We called it the big potty and would then show her the little potty. Everytime, we would explain that pees and poos are supposed to go into the potty. She loved watching the pees and poos go into the water. We would then flush and say goodbye to the pees and poos.

Some people might be shy about this idea, but we weren't. Afterall, she is too young to remember and it is an important learning step.

On to Step Three