Getting Brave

Here's our overdue potty-training update:

I had this naive idea in my head that I would perfectly potty train Maggie in diapers and then switch to underwear and voila, no accidents, no ruined furniture or carpets. Well, my plan started out well. As I mentioned in a previous post, a little over a month ago, Maggie was catching on to potty training quite quickly. We had a few "dry days" and Maggie even told me a few times when she needed to go. But, as time wore on the potty was losing it's newness and Maggie and I didn't have the motivation to get her to the potty as often. I finally came to the realization that whether we potty-trained now or later, there would probably be a few accidents, and since Maggie seemed to show most of the signs of readiness, we might as well go for it.

So, in a rash and impulsive mood, the Saturday before our big trip, I called my sister-in-law for some tips, looked at some online articles, and...switched to training pants. Okay, actually I wasn't really brave yet. I made Maggie wear a plastic pant (like the ones you use for cloth diapers) over her panties the first couple days. But that made it feel like a diaper and when she had an accident, neither she nor I realized it. So then, I got truly courageous and switched to underpants. We stayed on the tile a few days (potty-training really helped me to be a better mom for the week because to keep her in a contained area I really played with her constantly), I encouraged her to go every couple hours (one method said every half-hour, but that was too often for her, I think because she already knew how to go on the potty, we were just trying to learn to go only on the potty), she had a couple accidents, we did some cleaning up and practice role-playing (as per suggestion from my sis-in-law's book), and by the end of the second day in panties she was telling me when she needed to go or heading to the toilet herself!

AND it even held throughout the trip! I guess she really was ready. She only had one daytime and one nightime accident the whole time. She has had a couple since arriving home, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm just so proud of her. I never knew I would derive so much satisfaction from another person's bathroom habits. And now that we're going to save approximately $600 in diapers over the next year, what should we do with it? Maybe Maggie's college fund....