So the baby is 18 months, and I’ve had all the potty chairs and potty inserts for the big toilets out for about a month.

I’m not crazy. I just want her to be really, really comfortable with the idea of using the potty.

And then I want her to just USE it.

She likes it. She sits on the potty when she wants to. Sometimes I’ve gotten her to pee on it. And next to it.

Sometimes she likes to stand in her potty too.

I’m so excited. SO excited to know that diapers will be off my shopping list one day. Soon I hope. But also not expecting miracles. So far my other three had completely different potty-training experiences so who know what this one has in store for me. I have amassed a vast array of potty training accessories from the last one. He was by far the most difficult.

I’ve got the “Potty Power” video. (corny, but he loved to watch it and sing/dance along). I’ve got a monkey that says he has to go potty, asks you to put him on his potty, and his little potty will flush too. I got the “Joshua” potty book that came with a potty chair that looks just like his. I’ve got a potty that looks like a frog. A potty that looks like a throne, complete with toilet paper holder and flushing handle. Of COURSE it plays royal music when you pee into it! Two potty seat inserts for the regular sized toilets. We made sticker calendars for the potty, but that only really worked with my first….for her that calendar was all she needed to go diaper free in 2 days.

I have forced everyone in my house to sing “pee-pee potty” over and over and over….. and I will do it again.

I do think I’ve learned some things, some weird facts and some helpful tips even. Like, for some reason, my kids would NOT pee if they didn’t have a diaper or underwear on. Seriously, with the 2 boys at least, if I just put a longer shirt to cover their little butt… both of them would take themselves potty and not have accidents. I learned this from my first boy, who took matters into his own hands and trained himself by going commando at every opportunity until I gave up trying to keep him covered. In big boy pants by his 2nd birthday. DONE.

My last one….wow. I didn’t realize a child under 2 could already have issues about pooping in front of people. He initially would not poop at all unless it was in his pants (pull ups). I slowly managed to get him to at least stand in the bathroom instead of behind a chair, and then sit on the potty-in his pull up, and then with the sides open…. eventually I had him pooping on his potty INTO his pull up. It NEEDED to be there or he would freak out. One day I changed it to toilet paper, I had to line the bottom of his potty, and once he did it once or twice he was ok with it. He had some issue with his poop just dropping into the unknown, or into a cold plastic container I guess. He was also the only one in pull ups, which initially I found to be AMAZING…and later hated as I found myself too weak to break the habit time and time again.

That little guy was 2 and a half before we could say he was potty trained. I spent a year working on that. When I got rid of the disposable training pants, and used good old fashioned cotton pants, with a nice baggy vinyl cover on over it (protecting the furniture)… he was trained in no time. But before that, time and again I talked about getting rid of the pull ups, to be met with horror on my husbands face, no doubt imagining his living room saturated with pee puddles and poopy piles.

(vinyl diaper/training pant covers… got mine from amazon.com, where I get most fun things)

I think this time around…. I have to be strong. I have to do it without pull ups. I really think they are a huge factor in delaying potty training. They really ARE just diapers. Diapers that pull on and off, that have a little picture on the front that gets all fuzzy when they pee. We all KNOW they can pee in them, the kids know they can pee in them, so even if we all pretend they should definitely NOT pee in them….there isn’t a whole lot of discomfort if they do.

I think when they actually realize they have this soggy mess in their pants…. and the clean up is a little bit more difficult than pull off, and pull on…. they might have more incentive to get to that potty. It’s a theory…. I’ll see how it goes without using them this time.

 For now, this is something fun and different for baby Jenna. She started grabbing her diaper and saying “Uh-Oh” sometimes when she pees. She wakes up dry a lot from naps and in the morning….and usually will let me sit her on the potty for a bit to pee at those times. Sometimes she pees even! We talk about the potty, we say goodbye to the pee pee as we flush it, she even knows we wash our hands after all the potty business.

I still have a picture somewhere on this computer of Sammy’s poop. In the potty. he was so excited, he wanted to take a picture. Absolutely I let him, and we couldn’t wait to show EVERYONE as they came home! It’s a big deal!!

I promise I’m not a Nazi potty training mom. I would never force a child to sit against their will, or make them feel bad about going potty in their pants. Accidents happen, they HAVE to happen so they can be learned from. BUT… I can still hope. Here is my hope: Jenna will play like this with the potty for the next several months, then suddenly, wake up and understand completely what she needs to do. She will take off her diaper, and inform me that she wants big girl pants now, please. Pink.

And we will live happily ever after……