Potty successes!

January 26th, 21:43

Elaine's is doing really well with potty training. She did have one accident today so we're not there yet, but she's making great progress.

She took herself to the bathroom many times today but I always go along to help. Today, she announced, ran herself to the bathroom, turned on the light, moved the stool into position, took off her undies, and got on the potty herself. All this is fairly common. But then she hopped up to get herself toilet paper, plopped back on the potty to wipe, and then put on her undies again. I'm not sure how well she wiped (she just turned 2 after all) but she used an appropriate amount of toilet paper and didn't make a big mess. I think I just tried not to look too shocked as I stared from across the room. (And then I went in to make sure any droplets were cleaned up.)

Then we went out on a playdate with a little friend. We've been out on errands in underwear before, but never a fun event in a foreign place. (It was a kid's play gym we'd never been to but the friend had free trial passes.) Anyway, we were there 2 hours and I took her to the bathroom (much to her dismay) but she wouldn't use it. From there, we went to the post office so I could mail packages. She stayed dry! As we were leaving, I asked if she wanted me to find a potty or just hurry home. She told me to find a potty. (I was sure she'd say to just go home since she hates public potties.) I told her again that we'd be home in just a few minutes but she said potty. So we went a few stores down to a bookstore and she spotted the bathroom from across the room, "There it is!" We got there, still dry, and she protested for a moment about the public restroom but used it immediately when I assured her it wasn't an autoflush potty. Then we went home.

Many hours later, she's still kept her "unders" dry.

Cloth trainers = money savers

January 16th, 17:15

I don't think cloth diapers necessarily save money. It CAN be a money saver but it could also cost more. However, cloth trainers are far more cost effective than disposable trainers. (Of course, some people don't use trainers at all. I'll post why we are in another post.)

Anyway, if we were using something like pull-ups and changing them as often as I change her cloth trainers, I'd be spending $5-$10 per day. Yikes! She's at the stage now where she's making it to the potty often not always (and sometimes not noticing), or starting to pee but stopping to run to the potty and finishing there. This means she tells me they are wet but I have to do a fair amount of investigating before I find that wet droplet. I can throw trainers in the laundry so it's not a big deal (except for my time) but something like pull-ups would be 50 cents for that droplet. I am not really sure I wouldn't put the pull-up back on her. Of course, she probably wouldn't notice a drop in a pull-up since those are really diapers so it'd be less effective in terms of potty learning anyway, but that's a different discussion. :)