Living the Life and Loving It!: Making BIG Progress!

We have been working with Emily on Potty Training since Labor Day Weekend! We wanted to make sure that she was able to get the hang of things well before our little Ethan came to our family!!

She caught on very easily to going pee pee on the potty, which was Great!! However, getting her to go Poo Poo was A LOT more difficult than we had imagined or anticipated! We tried treats, telling her that others went poo poo on the potty (to which we got the response from her "Yay! Good Job! Congratulations!"), we even tried holding a diaper under her on the potty when she went, which worked semi-well, but still not 100% effective! And we also tried potty charts, which really have been our biggest success so far! Although still didn't really work for the poop issue:( I was almost to the end of my rope with the whole potty training business and then one day she decided to go poop all by herself....I had tried with her on the potty and she didn't go, but I knew she had to and so I sternly told her that if she got down and pooped in her pants or on the floor that I was going to be VERY upset with her. She got down, went about playing with Haley and as I was on the phone venting to Micah I heard her say, "Mommy, I pooped!". I cringed, because I thought the worst because she was in the living room, however, when I went to assess the situation what I saw was AWESOME!! She had pushed our love seat away from the wall, brought in one of her little potties and put it behind there and she POOPED IN HER POTTY!! When I got there both her and Haley were staring at it in amazement!! We were all so excited, we got her cleaned up and called everyone we could think of so that they could celebrate with us!! And something in that moment must have clicked for her, because she has been pooping in the potty ever since!! So, she then quickly finished up her first poo poo chart (that she had been working on for OVER A MONTH) and we are now a good way through her second one!! And it is great to watch her every time she uses the potty I can see her excitement and how good she feels about herself and the accomplishments she has made!! Potty training is DEFINITELY not easy, but I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows each of his children and showers each of us with tender mercies at the exact moment that we need them!!

We were trying to figure out what to do with each of Emily's potty charts, that are now piling up, and then yesterday Micah called me with a GREAT idea!! He suggested taking a picture of her with each of her charts and the treat that she got for completing each one!! So, yesterday while Haley was resting Emily and I had a little photo shoot!!!

1st Potty Chart Completed = This Blue Blanket from Babies R Us!