Potty Training K

K just started to potty train herself, and I am having visions of no more diapers. It has been almost six years now that we have had diapers and wipes as the top item on our grocery list. We would buy a big box from Sam's.

So how did this all start? I give credit to two older sisters because I know there is very little for which I can take credit. I had no clue what I was doing when I trained M, and my mother-in-law really was the one who trained R because I was too busy with a new born. With K, all I have done so far is put her on the potty on rare occasions.

It all started about a year ago. We do not have any training potties any more. We got rid of them in favor of a padded seat that fits on top of the big potty. It was easier with older children. So about a year ago, I set her atop this padded potty seat, and she would squirm off, frightened by her "precarious" position on a seat that has a hole. I did this about once a month, or maybe more like every other month. Over time, it did not frighten her, but she would sit for about half a second, maybe a whole second before she got bored.

The day before K's second birthday, she followed me into the bathroom, and a little light went on in her eyes. "Oh, that's why you sit there," she seemed to be thinking. So when I was done, I set her up there, and this time there was a determined look, as if to say, "I know what I am doing."

When she made tinkles for the first time, we celebrated, but the next day, I did not expect that she would inform me that she needed to go! She stood outside the bathroom, and when I tried to get her to go somewhere else, she said, quite clearly, "Potty." When I set her up, I realized her diaper was dry, and she made her tinkles right away.

Now, a few weeks has gone by, but she still gets up on the potty. She does not always have a dry diaper, nor does she often ask to go. But I am so pleased that we are moving in the right direction. This summer I intend to do what I did with M. I'll put her in a sundress and put a kid's potty right by the back door. If there is an accident while she plays outside, the mess is isolated to the outdoors, no reason to clean it up. And hopefully, her dress will be just fine. I'll just need to change her panties and wipe her legs. But the important thing is that she learns the discomfort of having an accident.