PUBLIC POTTY

So we put off potty training with Olive for a long time - I was pregnant/sick with Eli and working when she first started showing interest (around 18 months), so I introduced the idea, but didn't really enforce it (plus our apartment was completely carpet except the bathroom and small stretch of kitchen, and I was not interested in cleaning up messes at the time). Then after I had Eli and had recovered well enough, we introduced the concept again (around her second birthday), but then found out shortly after that we were going to be moving to another state. So once again I didn't really push it much since I know kids can revert to bad habits with big life changes. Then we finally got an apartment with lots of linoleum flooring - perfect for potty training - and I ended up pregnant again, and this time without any anti-nausea medication for the first 12 weeks. So needless to say, I didn't really start pushing it until she was about 2.5 years old. But I really didn't want to have 3 kids in diapers, so I finally started enforcing the potty training! There was a lot of letting her run around naked, only in underwear, playing in the bathtub with a potty chair until she used it, incentive charts, and even an occasional cold shower when it was obviously not an accident.

And so today, Olive finally used a public bathroom for the first time - twice! She was almost completely potty trained before Christmas, but then we went on vacation to California/Utah and resorted back to pull-ups and diapers instead of just underwear since we had a ton of travelling to do. And we hadn't practiced public bathrooms before then (running errands with her and Eli, and me being pregnant/sick made it almost impossible), so she wasn't used to warning us while wearing a diaper and got complacent. When we got back, we basically had to start all over again. But the sticker chart with rewards seems to be working just fine now (3 stickers equals a prize, either candy or a cheap pony toy). So today she was wearing a pull-up just in case she got distracted or forgot while we were out and about, but she didn't! Once was at Kroger, the other was at the park of all places! We are still working on her not going #2 when she has a diaper or pull-up on (such as first thing in the morning when she wakes up, or when we are out running errands), but she finally will not pee in her underwear if she is wearing pants anymore. Good stuff! We are right on track to be daytime diaper free with her by the time baby #4 comes along!

UPDATE: As of February 5th, I'd be willing to say Olive is now officially daytime potty trained! She still uses diapers at night, but even then she will sometimes wake up with a dry diaper and use the potty first thing. She has even used the bathroom at other people's houses when I am not there. She has a only a couple of accidents when she was too shy or too distracted, but she seems to learn from those incidents and tries not to repeat them :) And I love how she will say "Pee pee in the potty makes us happy, but pee pee in my underwear makes us sad!" She still gets stickers and such for doing a good job, but only if she asks for them, and she doesn't ask for them every time anymore, so it is starting to become the normal thing to do. She is getting so big!