Potty-Training the Pellow Way

I have no idea what I am doing. I have decided to potty train Rowan. I just decided "This is it. This is the week. Something has to be done about this silver belt issue and I guess this has to be the start." So, here we are. We had no plans for the week, the weather was supposed to be cold and yucky, Lance was going to be out of town. Let's just go for it. Of course, I had no idea how to start. I read a few books and decided I'm not totally on-board with any of the experts. The "wait until your child tells you they're ready" approach is probably not going to work unless I want to wait a long time. The "have a potty party and train your child in one day" also seems a bit insane. Lots of decorations, preparation and the potential that, after all of that, I will have an untrained child. So, I just kind of read a few ideas and am randomly choosing some things to do.

Sunday morning, we woke up, told Rowan she doesn't need diapers anymore and put all of her diapers in our closet--for naps and night only. We then let her run around with only a shirt on and encouraged her to go to the bathroom anytime she needed to. I think she peed on the floor 4 times. About the same yesterday. Though we did venture out of the house for a very fun pumpkin decorating time at the library where she wore "big-girl underwear" and even went potty in a public place. Today, instead of cleaning up the floor, I just told Rowan to go potty every 60-90 minutes or so and there were no accidents. But, again, I have no clue what I'm doing. I think we'll just kind of keep going at it for a while, staying home a lot this week and then venturing out for short trips in places with nearby public restrooms. I guess we'll just see how it all goes. Literally.

This weekend was tons of fun. We had our Halloween party on Saturday--lots of kids, lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while. Lots of food. Rowan and Tate were dressed in their monkey costumes (though in the photo, Tate is still wearing his funny spider shirt). I meant to make banana treat bags for them, but never got around to it, so Rowan carried her Diego Easter basket from this past year. A few more days until Halloween. I really need to get on those treat bags.