Potty Training a Princess

Getting a strong-willed child to do anything that isn't originally his or her idea can be quite tricky, but I'm proud to say that the little spitfire in my household who falls under this title has been wearing underwear for a week!

School didn't start back until Thursday of last week, so I thought we'd use our three days at home to give this whole potty thing another shot. I pumped the kids full of liquids & tried to make hanging out on beach towels on the tile floor seem like a treat. Mal had her first success right after breakfast on Monday & was so excited to get to put a sticker on her chart.
It only took Jake about half a day to decide that sitting on the potty just didn't fit into his busy agenda. He requested that his diaper be put back on & preferred stick to the old way of doing things. Mal, however, was definitely ready for this big step & got seven stickers on her first day, with only two accidents.
Tuesday brought more successes, stickers to celebrate them & two (#2) accidents because I think she was a little nervous about putting that into the potty. We had only one accident Wednesday morning & then none on Thursday. She even did a great job with her new skills at school!
Our first success of the day on Friday completed the sticker chart, so we headed to Target to pick out her promised prize.
Oh, what joy can come from a $4 Cinderella with wardrobe options!
Mal is still wearing a pull-up at night, which we'll probably do for a while, but there have been several mornings that she's dry when I go to get her up. We got rid of the pull-up for nap time on Friday & have had two successful days with that. Yesterday we even conquered public restrooms for the first time, trying them out at both Ikea & Chick Fil-A.

I think the key to our success, as many people told me it would be, has been waiting until she was actually ready for the change. I also really enjoyed the book Stress-free Potty Training, which was recommended by our pediatrician. It starts with a questionnaire to determine your child's personality type & then tailors its chapters to each type. Both of my kids scored highest in the Goal-Directed category, with Mal's secondary being Strong-Willed & Jake's being Impulsive. No big surprises there, but reading what the book had to say about each personality type's thought processes & how to manage them was helpful, not only for potty training, but for parenting in general.

We'll see if Jake decides to give it another try before Beau arrives, but I'm thrilled to at least have one down!