The "P" Word

There are a lot of "P" words going on at our house right now. A few of them are: potty, pee, poop and the dreaded panties. I absolutely despise that word, but since "underwear" is a bit of a mouthful for my almost 2 and a half year old, panties it is--even though I shudder every time I say it. We are day 5 into potty training and so far I think we've been pretty successful. I started on Saturday by telling Brooke that she was a big girl and it was time to wear panties (shudder). She had a few accidents on Saturday and Sunday, but on Monday she went the entire day without any accidents! She even went #2 in the potty and when we flushed she said "bye-bye poop, see you later!" That earned Brooke her first potty prize.

This is the the cutest board book ever:it has lots of lift the flaps, which Brooke loves (and secretly, so do I!)

I've been movivating Brooke with a couple big prizes (like the book, and I have another prize for her if she goes a few days in a row without any accidents) and on a daily basis with lots of praise, m&ms (which incidentally is also helping Brooke learn her colors she now knows green, orange, yellow, and blue 95% of the time) and with stickers. This is Brooke's potty princess chart:
she gets one sticker everytime she goes potty. I took this pic on Monday and now almost all her stickers are gone!

It hasn't all been successes though. Brooke is good to go potty if I am the one doing the reminding. Last night we were eating outside on our deck and Brooke had an accident...I had forgetten to remind her. Luckily it was outside and an easy cleanup. Then also yesterday I could tell that Brooke needed to poop but everytime I put her on the potty she wouldn't go. Finally, before bed (her tummy was starting to hurt her) I put her in the bathroom on her potty and said, "You are not coming out until you poop" I know that idea could have totally backfired on me, but I closed the door and sat outside and waited. She cried for a few minutes and then was quiet and then I heard "all done!"

With summer here, Brooke and I are having fun spending time together. Brooke loves to dance and we got this fun toy from one of her cousins..it's a dancing barbie ballerina mat. You plug it into your TV and dance on the mat as Barbie dances on the TV screen. The funny thing is, Brooke doesn't even care if it's plugged in. She pulls it around the house and likes to dance on the mat whenever she can. (I have to note that in this picture she is wearing a dress up skirt and a shirt that says "Birthday Girl" she found in a box. She is very independent when it comes to dressing herself. In fact with her new panties, Brooke wants to wear them all. So every few hours she wants to wear a different pair.)

Also, Brooke's sitter, H. was always so good to do crafts with her. I don't want that to stop just because she is home with me now and I am very uncreative. I want to do some weekly crafts with Brooke and I got this idea from here. It was super easy and Brooke LOVES it.

Here are two videos illustrating just how much Brooke loves her wand. She goes around the house waving it and making up songs.