Potty Training Ruby

After the older kids started school, I had this strange period of time that wasn't busy at all. It was so weird, after an action packed summer, to have 1 or 2 days that I had nothing on the schedule. It dawned on me then that this was the perfect time to potty train Ruby! She hadn't really shown signs of being ready, but since I knew it was a big time commitment for me to devote to doing it right...this just had to be our window of time! So we went for it. We had several days of "no pants" in the house, lots of reading stories in the bathroom, lots of fun drinks (Kool Aid, juice boxes, etc), and LOTS of candy bribery! After the first day, I knew she could do it. WHEW! The first major obstacle was over - #1. Next up...tackling the ol' #2! She was a little scared to do it in the toilet. So she held it and held it, sat on the toilet for 1 second then hopped off, and there is just no way to force them to do it - even though you know they need to!! So despite multiple, multiple trips to the toilet, we ended up with two big piles on the carpet. A pile a day, two days in a row. And poor Bryan was home with the kids for both of those times and had to do the clean up duty! After the second accident, we were pretty discouraged. What if this went on and on?? Well, we decided to try upping the ante for bribes. The size of the "business" would now correspond with the size of the reward! (Big poop = Big candy) Worked like a champ, I tell you! So Ruby is now the proud wearer of "unders," as she calls them, and we are all so happy about it!! Yea for Ruby!!

These pictures are just a couple of funny ones I snapped during our couple of pant-less days at home. In the first picture, she put her undies on all by herself (can you tell??), and the bottom one - although really fuzzy - was just a funny picture of her washing her hands with a naked bum and cowboy boots!