It's about the proper motivation

I haven't told you yet, but Ellie is almost potty trained! She's been in princess panties for two weeks now and is doing really well. It was daycare who told us she was ready, though we planned on waiting a while after the baby was born.

For a while we were motivating her to go poo-poo in the potty by telling her that she could have a lollipop if she did. Lollipops are her favorite, but even that seemed to lose its magic after a short period of time.

What has worked wonderfully since is Potty Hugs and Potty Dances. If she pees in the potty, Daddy gives her a Potty Hug. A potty hug is a great big hug full of bounces and turns. Only Daddy has the energy to do it. If she goes poo-poo in the potty, she gets a Potty Dance! A potty dance entails a lot of tosses into the air. Only Daddy has the strength and energy to do that.

But, for the most part, it's working quite well. Her teachers wrote us a note on Friday declaring her potty trained, though I don't quite buy it. I'm thinking that we'd be washing a lot fewer poopy underwear if that were so. However, we're close, especially for it just being a couple of weeks (and during such a time of change).