This had always been one of the stages I was dreading, but we bought a potty for Anabel when she was around 2 years old, and MrV even bought a ‘fancy’ travel one with a lid for when we’re out and about. Occasionally it was sat on, with Bella using it as a chair rather than it’s intended purpose. She’d never particularly liked the idea of the potty so we bought a little toilet seat so she could use the ‘big’ toilet, but she didn’t seem too fussed with that either. I’d heard from so many people that you can’t push your child, that they would let you know when they were ready, so I did just that. Every so often we would ask Bella, and when she said “no” we left it again for a while.
Last month, a friend on Facebook mentioned that her little girl was taking the big step, and I actually joked about getting her to show Bella how it was done! At that point, I think the idea of not wearing a nappy was a little too scary, and she didn’t seem at all ready, until a few days later.
The girls had just had a bath, and as usual Bella was bouncing around in her Tigger dressing gown, then she asked to sit on the potty. Within minutes of sitting on it, she shouted “Mummy, you hear that noise?!” and oh my god was she pleased with herself, she’d done a wee like a big girl!! She eventually let me tip it away, and then followed a huge explosion of excitement; about 20 minutes of her jumping up and down, squealing, giggling and being completely adorable, and getting lots of cuddles from a very proud mummy! (She’d also insisted that I kept it to show daddy, but as MrV had not long left for work, I managed to talk her out of that idea!!)
‘Today was the day’ I decided, so we went into town to buy her some pretty big girl knickers. It didn’t take Anabel long to find some she liked, with some ‘help’ from Amelia, but it took me a while to find the right size. Not many shops sell knickers small enough for my dinky 3 year old! We ended up buying 12-18 months, which isn’t particularly easy to find, but she was super happy with them and had to try them on as soon as we got home!!
I also decided to do her some sort of reward chart. Originally it was going to be on a big sheet of paper that I could tape to the bathroom door, but then I remembered about a tiny notebook I had (yes, I buy pretty ones before I have a use for them!) so I made her a special little book so we could have it with us even when we went out (she helped decorate it!) …
She was getting so good, we started running out of space for her stickers!
Bella’s managed to give me warning when we’ve been out in the car, or out shopping, or other people’s houses. She even wakes me in the middle of the night, and brings me the potty first thing in the morning! And now that she’s at pre-school (blog coming soon!) she gets to use the dinky toilets, which has helped her massively, she always tells me when I pick her up!
I guess I had nothing to worry about after all, I just needed to wait ’til she was ready! 😊
Trouble comes in threes... 