Isabel (& Josiah) Island: She's a big girl now!

On Saturday, Isabel...

...threw away her diapers and donned her big girl Dora panties!
Look how proud she is to be a big girl now!

For a couple of weeks now, Isabel has been going pee-pee every time we put her on the potty, and sometimes even telling us that she has to go. We have even had a couple of successes with her going poopy on the potty! All these signs told us that she was ready for potty-training, so we decided to go for it cold turkey with both of us home this weekend. We used a variation of the 3-day potty training method that I have read other parents have had a lot of success with. Isabel currently LOVES Dora the Explorer, so a couple of weeks ago I began to build her excitement about potty training by telling her that we would go out together and buy some Dora panties for her. She was very interested in this, and all week we would hear the words "Dora panties!" at least ten times a day. Late in the week, we started telling her that Saturday was the big day. She would get to throw away her diapers and start wearing her new panties. When she woke up from her nap on Saturday, she was very excited when she got to pick out her first pair to put on (ones with the color pink in them of course, as she is currently obsessed with all things pink and purple).

On Saturday, we were very proud that she had only two accidents, and 7 successes on the potty! She even went poop on the potty once, for which her mommy was literally jumping up and down in the bathroom and carrying on more than any grown woman should for any bodily function!

On Sunday she also had many successes and a few accidents. One accident was #2 in her panties, but she had been playing outside at the time, and I know that many children simply don't want to stop playing to come inside to use the potty. So, we are continuing to watch her like a hawk and trying to recognize the signs of when she begins to go #2, so that we can rush her into the potty. One series of events on Sunday made me very proud of her, and proved that she really does have the ability to hold it for a long time. She had gone pee-pee around 1:00, then we went outside to play for a long time. Near the end of this time, she was jumping on our neighbors' trampoline with their kids, and giggling and giggling and giggling. I thought to myself, "Oh no, I hope that her laughing does not make her pee in her panties!" Then, it started to rain on us, pretty hard, and we were all scrambling to get me, Josiah, Isabel, and Ginger back to our house without getting too wet. Again, I was steeling myself for the discovery of an accident. But when we were finally inside and I took her to the potty, her panties were dry and she went a lot on the potty! Yay Isabel!

We kept her pants-less for the most part these first couple of days, to reduce the amount of laundry I needed to do! The below photos show you that she has no inhibitions and unabashedly played outside in her panties! I love this about little kids!