“Mama! I poopooed in the toilet! I get two stickers!  Say congratulations to me!” -zienne noelle

{congratulations, zi! I’m so proud of you!}  

We started Zi on toilet training around December when she was 2.5 years old and it went pretty slowly.  Emma’s training lasted a week, but Emma was also 2 weeks shy from being 3, so she was mentally more ready.  I think the pressure we put on Emma played a big part on Emma wanting to successfully learn to use the toilet.  We’re a bit more lenient to Zienne and we’re using more rewards.  So far, it’s working more and more to reward Zi with 2 stickers every time she does a #2 in the potty.  She’s very excited to add to her sticker book so she’s more conscious in using the toilet every time she gets that funny feeling.  So far, for weeks now, she’s pooped in the potty/toilet every day, giving us the signal that she has bowel urgency.  So it’s safe to say she’s potty trained when it comes to #2, but #1 is a whole other challenge because she seems not to care to use the potty during urination.  She’s comfortable in using her diaper for conveniency.  There was only one time she told us she needed to pee pee and successfully used the toilet for that. 

I didn’t think we could potty train her this early, but her communication skills are so advanced, it really does make it easier.  Yay! Zienne, we’re very proud of you.