couple of questions about preparing to potty train

First of all, just curious if it's easier to train one at a time? Arwen I think, is starting to show signs that she may be getting ready for the process. We have a little potty that we keep in the downstair bathroom just for them to see and get used to. They like to play with it, take it apart, put their foot inside and sit on it. I keep saying the word potty. Arwen is very interested when I go pee pee so I always say what I'm doing. Mommy is making pee pee on the potty. Mommy is wiping her V V (what we call vagina). Mommy is putting the paper in the potty. Mommy is flushing the pee pee. And then we say bye bye pee pee. Lately, she has been telling me (though not consistently) that she has poo poo or she holds her vagina saying pee pee (or poo poo, she mixes them up). But when I say, you want to go pee pee on the potty? She runs away. I tried putting her on the potty once about a month and a half ago but she freaked out and ran off. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken her diaper off. A couple of days ago she was saying off off so I took her pants off and let her sit on the potty. She sat for about 6 or 7 seconds and then got up and was done with that. Does it sound like she is getting ready?

1. what should I do before we really get into this whole training thing?

2. are there good dvds and books that you recommend?

3. Should I pretend with some dolls first?

4. do you recommend I do them at the same time or one at a time. Lorien seems no where ready to deal with this but perhaps she will be the one who actually ends up doing it first (twins ).

Thanks for your help

 

1. what should I do before we really get into this whole training thing? -- My advice would be to wait for a few more signs of readiness. For example, can she tell you BEFORE she goes or only after it is in her diaper. Can she pull her pants on and off by herself? Can she hold it for longer periods of time (like a trip to and back from the park, through a nap, etc.)? Continue to leave the potty out and if she asks, let her sit on it.

2. are there good dvds and books that you recommend? -- We did not use any, but I am sure there are lots out there.

3. Should I pretend with some dolls first? -- You can, but we never did. Dr. Phil seems to be a big fan of it.

4. do you recommend I do them at the same time or one at a time. Lorien seems no where ready to deal with this but perhaps she will be the one who actually ends up doing it first (twins ). -- We did them separately, simply because one was ready before the other. But if they were both ready at the same time, then we would have done it at the same time. In retrospect, I am glad it was separate. Those first couple weeks were a bit challenging (getting her to go potty before leaving the house, using public toilets, poor aim and thus wet clothes, etc.) and it would have been difficult to do that TIMES TWO! Your comment about Lorien not being ready made me laugh; Hannah potty trained first and was pretty easy. Ben potty trained second and although I was terrified at the thought of him training (he can be stubborn, aloof, lazy, etc.), he was actually even easier to train than Hannah. I hope that Lorien surprises you when she is ready!

 

1. what should I do before we really get into this whole training thing? I would wait for more signs of readiness. Looks to me that she might just have a passing curiousity with the potty. My DD had this around 2. Whenever I asked her to sit on it, she would sometimes run off screaming. This was my sign to take a step back for awhile.

2. are there good dvds and books that you recommend?I bought some books, but I wouldn't recommend them. Every child is different, and the approach should be different.

3. Should I pretend with some dolls first?I didn't. It's best if they can see you and mimic you. You are better to them than a doll.

4. do you recommend I do them at the same time or one at a time. Lorien seems no where ready to deal with this but perhaps she will be the one who actually ends up doing it first (twins ).My DD was ready before my son. When she would pee, I would give her an mini-M&M. My DS would cry for one when he saw her with it. I told him that he had to wait until he peed in the potty even though he showed no signs of readiness at the time. Well, he hopped on the potty and would start peeing each time and scream for his treat afterwards. He trained in less than a month while DD took two months to completely train. So for me, I pretty much did it at the same time. I think it's less work and they both can be apart of the training process.

Also, I started training at 2 1/2 years old.

 

A friend of mine recommended a book called "Toilet Training in Less Than A Day." It was written like 30 years ago and it is still in print, so I'll bet alot of people have read it. I tried the methods in the book, even though some of them seemed a little kookie and unnecessary. As a result, my kids learned to go to the potty by themselves in 10 days.

So it's not quite "less than a day". But 10 days of toilet training is not bad at all. I have to say though, the first 5 days were really hard, and I picked a week when my DH was home from work so that he could take one child out as I trained the other one.