Thursday, June 5, 2008

Potty Paradise











As Phil Vassar put it in a song. "Its just another day in Paradise!"



I hope I'm not piping up too early.... Elisabeth is pretty much potty trained!!! Jake & I tried many things to potty train Ellie from M&M's to downright sheer bribery. She started to go potty in the toilet all by herself in February a couple of weeks after Nathan was born. She wanted to be the "big" sister and big kids go potty. Her biggest problem wasn't that she couldn't identify if she needed to go or not, it was getting her to stop being so busy to go potty. One day we were at Walmart and we walked by the bikes. We thought it would be fun to buy Elisabeth a bike for Easter. She wanted that bike more than anything! That's when Jake and I started to tell Elisabeth that if she would go potty in the toilet and not have any accidents that we'd take her to Walmart to buy her that bike. She worked hard, but she still was having those awful accidents! So, in an effort to help her remember how much she wanted that bike, we'd take her to Walmart and let her ride it around the store. Then we were awful parents and would drag her away from her new "true love". About 2 weeks ago we started talking about the bike every day and since then there has been only 1 daytime (wet) accident and 1 night accident we broke down and bought the bike. I made a big deal and took Ellie to Walmart about 2 weeks before and let her pick out the underwear that SHE wanted. It has worked wonders! After we bought the bike, we told her if she didn't go potty in the toilet the bike would go to time out. So far its worked like a charm!

3 comments:

Janice said...

There is absolutly nothing wrong with bribery! It's the way of the world! How do you think I get Brennan to do anything? I'm so happy for you that Ellie is going potty like a big girl- maybe I'll send her another suprise!

Jinsey Jane said...

That is the most spectacular bike that I have ever seen in my life. She should be plenty grateful for such a fun bike and all the things that go along with it (head gear, etc.) I am glad that you are also teaching her safety with her new bike also.

Dan & Calli Ellinger said...

Yeah Elisabeth!