Ruby has had lots of advancements this month. She learned to tell Daddy that his bottom is big, that mommy needs a big swimsuit and that she prefers "chasing the law" to "following the law". However, no advancement has been as big as toilet training. Ruby moved up to a new class a daycare and it became apparent that she was not that into the entire spend half your day on the potty and you will figure it out method. A coworker told me about a book, Toilet Training in Less than a Day, that she had great success with. I read the book and it seemed reasonable, so I took a Friday off and we settled in to see how it would go. The basic premise is that you work in several training methods at one time. First, you have the child teach a doll how to use the potty. Then, you explain how much their "heroes" do not like wet pants when they have an accident. Then you practice practice practice by loading them up with salty foods and lots to drink. The doll training went pretty well. However, when Ruby had her first accident, I was supposed to list 10 people who don't like wet pants. After person number two (Barney) she was so upset that I didn't have the heart to finish out the list. By the end of the day we were both exhausted and I had decided that I must have done something wrong. However, the next morning, Ruby woke up wanting dry pants and went to the potty on her own all day. A week out from that she is still doing well and I suppose we can call her potty trained for all intents and purposes. There are still accidents occasionally but overall it was worth it for both of us! I shudder to think of the poor mom's who are trying to do this in a carpeted house.
