Friday, January 12, 2007

What A Sucker!

So one of our New Year resolutions is to get Bella potty trained before preschool starts in August. At least enough where she can tell the teacher she needs to go potty and will keep her pull-up dry, for the most part.



Yesterday, I told Bella that she needed to potty on the big-girl potty because we were almost out of Dora pull-ups. It is true, I wasn't lying!



Then...I said she'd get a reward after. Her eyes got huge with excitement and she ran to the potty, yanked her pants down and peed with lightning speed.



After much praise and hand clapping, I cleaned her up, she washed her hands and immediately requested her reward. So I gave her a dum-dum sucker.



She peed 4 times yesterday. That means FOUR SUCKERS.



Each time she would go, pulling her own pants down and sort of pulling them back up (getting it over the hiney seems to be a challenge) then promptly asked for her reward. At first I thought she was fibbing when she'd come running into the room announcing what a big girl she is on the potty. Isn't that awful? But sure enough, a freshly filled potty tray awaited me.



Hmmm.



At this rate, we'll be visiting the dentist within a month trying to explain decay and chipped teeth. We'll also have to spend a small fortune stocking up on toilet paper for the half-roll she wads and dabs with after each session.



This morning, I asked if she needed to use the potty. She said no so I figured yesterday was just a freak day. I changed her droopy night diaper and put fresh clothes on her.



I barely had her pants pulled up before she tore off to the bathroom, yanked down her pants, peed, asked if I was "poud of hu" (yes, she's into talking 3rd person lately) and demanded a sucker.



Uh-oh.




14 comments:

Kandace said...

She's a smarty! I am taking note for future reference!!

sc@vp said...

omgsh - we totally had the same issue with sadie. Only it was chocolate chips. One day, we just said, "today you're not getting any rewards for potty" and ... she was fine.

(Probably won't work with every kid, though.)

Kelly said...

Wow. This is great news. I guess you'll be making a visit to the Bulk Barn very soon. Uh, wait a minute, I think that's only in Canada...anyhoo, I guess you'll be making a trip to where suckers are sold in bulk!!

Congrats Bella!

T-girl said...

OH! YOU luck duck!! Although Joci is into Pooping on the toilet lately! It is my fault I just need to sit down and do it so to speak, making her go! Sigh, she is ready but I am not so sure Mommy is! LOL Maybe I will try this approach see if it works for us!

I am jealous either way... what are you going to tell her though in 10 years... actually hell with her, how are you going to explain to teachers they have to give her a sucker! ROTFLMAO

Jennboree said...

Today I switched to pieces of a Hershey bar. That seems to work. Wonder if I can make them smaller and smaller till it is just a pretend piece of candy?

Is my daughter gonna have issues with food or what!

Amanda said...

woohoo! go bella!

we had a kid at our autism clinic this summer who would work for pieces of lettuce. after several hours in the pocket of a therapist, lettuce isn't very appealing. (in case you were wondering!)

T-girl said...

Amanda Sue... that is so cute! Lettuce!!! I say "hey, whatever works and get's the job done!" LOL I probably could get it done with Pineapple to be honest, I will have to try it! LOL

Jen- Someone told me M & M's once because she could keep them in the bathroom in an airtight container... still kind of gross though! LOL As far as getting her off the sweet kick, you can then switch to "dessert" as her reward at the end of the day after a few weeks or whatnot when she goes all day. This way you can just do it at the end of the day! LOL For example when you get to the point where you are not promising it but she asks you can say, "You know we are out of sweets today so whould you like a piece of apple or carrot stick instead." (Kids are big on choices, in particular food choices so normally this works with the younger sets. LOL)

I have NO idea if this actually works but it was recommended in one of my nutrition books as a way for parents to get off the sweet "rewards" bandwagon. Couldn't hurt to try! LOL

Girlie said...

Wow! I am so proud of your Bella.

Yossi is into 3rd person lately. Yesterday he came to me and said: Yossi wants a 'eballs. (meat balls)"

When I gave it to him, he said, "Yossi thanks yoo"

I wonder if he saw that Grey's Anatomy.

Michelle said...

I did the same thing with Micheal, only we used a hershey kiss. The first couple of days, he asked for it every time he went, and sometimes he would go just so that he could get some chocolate, but then a couple days later he would forget about it, or I just would forget about it, and then it was no big deal. He'll still ask for one once in a while, and sometimes I'll give it to him if he does a lot, or sometimes I just tell him not today. He'll get mad, but he gets over it pretty quickly. Plus, I found out that Pull-Ups weren't enough of a reminder that he needed to go, because they're just glorified diapers. We went to Walmart and found the gerber training pants, and they work pretty well, except for the laundry issue, but if you don't have accidents, then it's no big deal.

Jennboree said...

I ordered some cotton training pants too. More than a few parents have said pull-ups are useless in training, which makes sense!

I'm also going to create a treasure chest of sorts. Gonna hit up the party favor section of Target pretty good.

I've noticed Bella REALLY likes to be told how proud we are of her. I may not have to use bribes as much as I thought!

MeesheMama said...

You are just a blogging fool lately, eh?

I love this story. I suppose I'm going to have to face this soon enough. Bella's a cutie.

RockerMom said...

Hey Jenn, we did the bribe (I mean reward!) thing for awhile too. But like you said, sometimes the verbal rewards outweigh anything else. They are so eager to please us that soon the physical rewards become routine and boring. (Amazing to me since a piece of candy would never be boring to me!) It sounds like you're not going to have to work very hard with potty training her! Way to go, Bella!

tallulah said...

Yeah Bella!

I did Gummi bears with one, skittles with another, M&Ms' with another one....kids are all suckers for suckers aren't they?

louann said...

teehee thanks for making my MOnday morning with a funny anecdote.But really...hehe visits to the dentist may starting getting frequent =)
Gosh, kids sure are a LOT smarter than we think!