March 6

Audrey was feeling much better today. No fever, and she was happy and hyper and normal!! We did stay home from church this morning, but since she was acting so much better, we took her to small group tonight. I think she was happy to get out of the house, and SO WAS I!!!

So, Audrey's big girl panties are all fresh and clean and ready for her to wear. I'm just not quite ready for her to wear them yet! We have spent so much time in the house this weekend that my patience is wearing very thin. To maintain my sanity and start this week on a positive note, we are going to get out of the house tomorrow and do something fun. I don't know where we are going to go or what we are going to do, but we are getting out of here for the day. Then on Tuesday, the potty training will begin (no more excuses!!).

I've done a little research on potty training, and there are many people out there that will tell you they have discovered a surefire way to potty train kids. I'm not sure that I believe there is any one correct method of potty training. I think every kid is different, so I don't know how there can be any guarantees. I have found a few ideas that I like, but they are not set in stone. With all that said, here is my potty training plan...ready to be adjusted as needed as the week progresses. (WARNING: I will probably be using a lot of "p" words this week: potty, pee, poop. If you would prefer to avoid these topics, then you may want to stop reading for the next week or so!!)

1. No diapers while Audrey is awake. We'll do pull-ups while she is sleeping, because I know she is not ready to be dry at night, and I am definitely not ready to deal with dirty bedding yet. But while she is awake, she will be wearing her big girl panties, aka training pants. And we will make lots of trips to sit on the potty in the bathroom. And hopefully she will quickly get the idea! =) She hates to be dirty, so I'm really hoping that those first few wet/dirty panties will motivate her to use the potty.

2. We have a little potty, but I don't care if she uses that or the big toilet. She likes to sit on both right now. As long as she is going in some kind of potty, I don't care which she chooses.

3. I may give her extra snacks/juice this week to help "spur" things along. We'll see. If that just causes me to have to clean up more accidents and do more laundry, I may change my mind about it.

4. I'm thinking about a reward system. This will probably develop as we go along and see how things are progressing and what she responds to. I think a sticker chart (especially if we used Mickey Mouse stickers) would make her happy. But we might get crazy and do M & M's or marshmallows too.

5. We are going to stay home. There are a few details to work out here. We have to be at church Wednesday night and at Sprouts Thursday morning. So I think she will have to do a pull up at church, and then we are going to try our first public outing with no diapers on Thursday at Sprouts (though I may change my mind about that after the first 2 days). But other than that, we are not leaving the house...it's all about the potty this week!

6. I'm going to try this through Friday or Saturday. Then we will evaluate how it is going. If she seems to be getting the idea, we'll keep up with it. If she doesn't get it at all, we'll stop for now and just try again later.

I am open to any suggestions that all you experienced parents may have for me!!! I'm really dreading this entire process, so I probably need to get a more positive attitude before Tuesday gets here. It's going to be fun, right????