Potty training, Part 2

The day has come ... Madeline has decided that she wants to be potty trained, too!  So this is a follow up to my first potty training post from November 6, 2011 when Annabel was through with diapers.  I said then that we were just going to let Madeline wait until she was ready before attempting to potty train.  We did just that, and it worked out great!  That is my new secret to potty training - wait until they are ready.  (However, I was determined to get her potty trained before new baby arrives, so if she hadn't decided she was ready soon, we were going to start pushing it.)

With Madeline, it happened pretty quickly.  She always had the intelligence and ability, no doubt about that.  But with most everything else, Madeline will do it when Madeline wants to/is ready to do it!  So about 2 weeks ago, after wearing panties off and on that weekend, she announced on Monday morning that she wanted to wear panties to school.  I laughed at the thought of what the daycare workers were going to do to me when we tried the cold turkey method, but she was insistent, so panties it was!  She did remarkably well for no real "practice" potty training, although I guess seeing Annabel go potty for months was practice enough.  I think she had a couple of accidents that first week, but she pretty much had it conquered in a week!  HUGE thanks to the daycare for sticking with her and making it happen.  Now she LOVES to go potty, sometimes several times an hour.  She'll announce "I need to go potty" to anyone listening.  Sometimes she wants mommy or daddy to accompany her, and sometimes she insists on doing it herself!  She hasn't even needed bribery, although she does occasionally remember the candy reward thing and asks for some.

And she loves her Hello Kitty panties!

So at age 2 1/2, we have TWO big girl panty wearing little girls.  They love running to the drawer and picking out their panties each day ... Dora, Hello Kitty, or princess panties are their current choices.  And both girls were equally as easy to potty train, each in their own timing.  I am really glad we waited rather than struggling with Madeline.  (She is not an easy child to struggle with ... she usually wins!)  I can only hope James is that easy. I WILL wait until he is ready.