how to get a potty training miracle

Let me just say. If you don't have an imminent need to potty train a child, skip this post. It's going to be full of potty words and talk. Which is completely boring and just downright unappetizing, unless you're in the thick of it. And then you are desperate for any advice from anyone who has successfully trained a child. a dog. or any other potty trainable creature.

Let me be completely honest. I have been the worst potty trainer in the world. When my sister started potty training little Ella, I said "I have no advice. Even though I have potty trained three children, I know nothing about how to make the process enjoyable, bearable or last less than twelve months. I'm sorry. Good luck."

So when my friend recommended this book she had used with her three kids, I was all over it. . . (I will refrain from typing the potty humor that just came to mind.) Now. If she had only potty trained one child with it, I would have been a lot less enthused. But three kids. Each completely potty trained in less than two weeks. (And she was totally complaining about how long it took with the two-week one. Please. If it took two months I would be sold.)

So I borrowed her supply of potty training materials:

Toilet Training in Less Than a Day by Nathan Azrin & Richard Foxx (title is a tad deceptive. it does take longer than a day.)
It's Potty Time by Smart Kids Publishing
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
You Can Go to the Potty by William & Martha Sears & Christie Watts Kelly
Potty Time With Bear (of Bear in the Big Blue House) -- this is a dvd

And this is how I did it:

week before ava started potty training:
•i read book (Toilet Training in Less Than a Day) from cover to cover
•enthusiastically talked about how fun it would be for ava to teach the baby doll (this will make sense after reading the book) to go potty. over and over. all week long. clapped, danced, made songs up about it.
•ava got to climb in bed with me and read potty books one night (the three middle ones on the list are childrens books). We read them a couple more times throughout the week.
•watched movie (Potty Time with Bear) a couple times throughout the week

a few days before potty training started:
•sussied up her training underpants and let her hold them and show them to everyone
•took her to the store to buy a new baby doll she could teach how to go potty

day before potty training started:
•went shopping together for a stylin' pink potty
•let her help pick out some drinks and treats


a couple more things:
•ava has no interest in being a "big girl." she likes to be a baby. so saying "oh you're going to be so big" is not an incentive at all for her. instead i said "oh you are such a good baby doll." she loved this. and "oh you are so smart."
•this book gives you all of the details on how to teach them so that they go on their own. you don't have to be constantly asking them if they need to go all the time. after the first few days of training, ava started telling me when she had to go and no more promptings were needed after that.
•the biggest key is to be positive and enthusiastic. lock yourself in the laundry room and pray, pray, pray for patience if you have to (you know, after cleaning the third poop out of underwear for the day.) it will pay off soon.

and that, my friends, is everything i know about potty training.

the end.