Wake up Slow: Emmy went and did it!

As promised, I will now document the series of events that led to Emmy finally being completely potty-trained. If reading about bodily functions such as pee-pee and poopy disgusts you, than this is not the blog for you.

It all began in January. I had no intention of potty-training Emmy at the time. I'm a believer that potty-training should be easy and I didn't want to force things. Well, out of the blue, Emmy announced she wanted to be a big girl and proceeded to go pee-pee and poopy on the potty several times. So I decide to strike while the iron was hot and potty-train her. I read a fun book called Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day and got pretty excited at the prospect of no diapers. (The theory behind this book is that the first part of the day is spent potty-training a doll and then the second part of the day you work with the child to do what they just "taught" the dolly.) So to make a long story short, I went all out. I bought her a new potty seat and stool, lots of fun drinks, a baby doll that pees, and a new book about the going on the potty. I sewed little pairs of underwear for the baby doll. I decorated the house with balloons and flowers. I even put a variety of candy rewards in cute little blue cups and put them on a serving tray so that when she was successful she could choose one. This might have been one of the happiest days of Emmy's life. When she woke up, I declared that today we were having a potty party. I presented her with her gift and told her we would be eating breakfast (Fruit Loops, no less!) in the family room together. We read potty books, watched potty shows (the library is a great resource!), and had a lot of fun together. She did very well - no accidents - and we celebrated that night by taking her out for ice cream.

OK, so I'm not doing a good job at shortening this long story. Unfortunately, with each passing day, Emmy had more and more accidents. She began to resent going to the potty and it became a battle of wills. A battle that I was not in the mood to fight. So, I told her she wasn't ready to be a big girl yet, put the doll and big girl underwear away, and bided my time.

Fast forward a few months to May. I was feeding Sophie one morning when Emmy walked in and said, "I want to be potty-train." "Sure," I said. I had her spend the day with just a T-shirt on (yes, it was fun to see her cute little bare buns running around) and was very low-key about the whole thing. She had no accidents. I took her to Cold Stone to celebrate and she chose blue cotton-candy ice cream with gummy bears as a mix-in. The next day her friends came over and she peed her pants twice. But, after that day, she's been pretty near perfect, even at night! It turns out, she can hold it for hours and hours - refusing to use public restrooms and often refusing potties at friends' houses.

So the second time around was how I always hoped - almost effortless. Yes, I had to wait until she was almost three, but after only two days, I don't even have to think about it. She can take care of her own business now, and I'm so proud! More importantly, she is proud of herself and it is so fun to see her feel such a sense of accomplishment. The first few times she peed on the potty, the expression on her face was priceless. Also priceless is how she announces, "Mommy! Peep is coming out!" (Emmy calls pee, peep - which I think is pretty cute).

If you're wondering about the title of this blog, it is the first line of our victory song (this song was passed down from when I was a wee one):

Emmy went and did it, she did it, she did it
Emmy went and did it, she (fill in the blank) on the potty!
Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!