Potty Training Part 2

Monday we started to potty train Lily again. We had attempted potty training back at the beginning of the summer when Josh first got out of school and it did not go very well. We took a 2 month break almost and started trying again. We are using the 3daypottytraining.com method. I read through the whole method and it seemed like a realistic plan for Lily so we started on Monday.

Monday was a long day with a good number of accidents a few successes but lots of praise and excitement thankfully. The previous method we tried ended about 4 hours in because of the complete meltdowns Lily was having in response to being asked to sit on the potty. This method gets the parent to wait for the child to prompt the trip to the potty either by saying, "potty or pee pee" or by starting to have an accident and rushing her to the potty to finish it out if there is any left. Monday her accidents were full blown with a little success once she was on the potty.

Tuesday felt longer but went better. Lily had fewer full blown accidents and more success of telling us she was about to go, leaking a little, holding the rest until we got to the potty and then finishing. She did a great job on Tuesday and woke up from her nap dry.

Wednesday which according to the method is supposed to be the "final" day of training went as good as I hoped. Lily didn't have any pee pee accidents at all. She told us when she needed to go and went potty successfully each time. She never managed to have a successful poopy experience at this point. We caught her in the act the first day and she finished it out on the potty but the last couple of days she has tried to hide and does it in her panties. We are still waiting.

Today, Thursday we went out of the house for the first time since we started potty training. We were all starting to feel a little cooped up. Lily did great and didn't have any accidents while we were out. She even went potty in a public restroom without her potty chair. Lily also went all night last night without wetting the bed. I was unsure this was possible since she pees quite a bit at night time and wakes up pretty wet every morning but we tried the method suggested by the author of the 3daypottytraining.com ebook and it worked. Basically, we stop giving Lily a lot of liquids after about 4:30 (since her bedtime is 7:30) and we only give her a little bit of milk before bed instead of a full cup. The last technique we used was a result of her wetting the bed the 2 previous nights. Right before we go to bed Josh went in Lily's room and got her out of bed and put her on the potty. She pee peed right away and he put her back in bed for the night where she went right back to sleep. This process resulted in Lily waking up DRY!!!

Lily's diapers do not exist in our house anymore so she will be potty trained one way or another!! Just wanted to share our potty training experience. I definitely recommend this method since there have not been any meltdowns or power struggles in relation to the potty as there were with the "one day potty training" method.

Davis giggled!

I would like to mark this event for Davis. On Monday, July 27th, 2009 he giggled. I know you may be wondering what Davis giggled at, well....his dear old daddy. Josh has a pretty good ability of making crazy faces and one of Josh's animated faces got Davis to giggle. I do believe that a silly face from Josh is also what got Lily to giggle for the first time too. I am beginning to think that I am just not that funny.

I don't have video yet of the giggle, I am going to work on that soon.

Panama City Beach July 11th-17th 2009

We just got back from the beach where we spent the week with 2 families that we are good friends with. The trip was a lot of fun and we are glad that we took our first real family vacation with Lily and Davis. They both did great while we were gone and Lily had a great time at the beach in the sand with McKenzie and Haley. Here is a brief rundown of some of the fun things we did while at the beach:

Saturday: Left at 9am and drove for 8 hours (1-1.5 hours longer than hoped) arrived at 5pm and got all unloaded and unpacked at our condo. 1501 Ocean Reef and went to dinner at Hana Japan in Pier Park.

Sunday: Beach in the morning, nap and then dinner at Pineapple Willy's with the families.

Monday: Beach in the morning, nap and Josh, Lily, Davis and I went to Pier Park to walk around. Lily rode the Carrosel and the train there. Dinner courtesy of Josh and his fantastic chef abilities.

Tuesday: Beach in the morning with some pool time, naptime and then a trip to shell island with the Anderson's. (Do not go to shell island for shells since there are no shells there it seems and with a child who doesn't walk and a child who walks in the water with her clothes on). Dinner compliments of the Andersons (Taco Salad Bar).

Wednesday: Beach in the morning with pool time, naptime and then a trip to Gulf World with sea lions, sharks, alligators, divers, parrots, penguins and lots more. We saw a great dive show and a great sea lion show. This is a great place to take the kiddos. We went to dinner at Guy Harvey's Island Grill that night.

Thursday: We went to St. Andrew's State Park to the lagoon beach area in the morning. This is a great place to take little kids because the water is very shallow, few waves, crystal clear with fish and shells to see. Naptime in the afternoon. Trip to Walmart where we had a fight with a woman over our place in line. Dinner compliments of the Lamberts (Lasangna).

Friday: Pack up all our stuff (too much stuff really). Took a 2 hour boat ride on The Sea Screamer. Got some lunch and drove the 7 hours home (shaved an hour off the trip).

Whew....what a week.

Here are some pictures to document our first Family Vacation:

Have I got a Deal for you....

Davis wakes up sometime between 5am and 7am to eat and I am typically the only one up at that time so things in the house are quiet and dark. I have a hard time staying awake during this time due to the fact that I am sitting in a super comfy glider with a sound machine going. To keep myself awake I get on my laptop and look at my favorite sites.

I am a glutton for a good deal and I have a number of websites that I LOVE to look at in my daily routine, so I thought I would share some of them with you in case you love a good deal too. So here they are (in the order that I actually check them):

www.woot.com
sellout.woot.com
www.dailydeals.com
www.lootpig.com
www.1saleaday.com
www.mamabargains.com
www.tottlers.com
www.greenbabybargains.com
www.slickdeals.net
www.babycheapskate.blogspot.com
www.shnoop.com
www.babysteals.com
www.babyearth.com/baby-sale

Hope you enjoy some of these sites. If you have any favorite sites that you would like to share with me that you think I might like definitely let me know! Happy Deal Hunting.