Troubles & Triumphs of a Growing Family: Potty time for Bristol

Today is the first day of summer break and the first day of potty training. Bristol has not been very fond of the idea of sitting on the potty ever since we started talking about it with her a few months back. She always whined and said noooo.
Last night we went to Wal mart and picked out Dora and Friends & Frozen Fever big girl underwear. She liked the underwear but still was not happy about this potty talk. We also picked out some small $1.00 - $2.00 toys/prizes that we could put into a bag and she could pick one after she went potty. We came home and put together her prize bowl and she was very excited.

She loved picking out random toys but STILL wasn't sold on the whole potty thing once I told her she could only pick something once she went on the potty.

I was hopeful this morning as we sat her on the potty for the first time to start out potty training journey...but Bristol STILL was not having any of it. This was her reaction..

After I jumped around and danced and screamed and yelled about how awesome it was that she was sitting on the potty she stopped crying and I allowed her to pick a prize for sitting on the potty like a big girl. I set the timer and we tried again....no tears. I guess she decided sitting there wasn't so bad if she was going to get a prize for it. After the first two times sitting on the potty and getting a prize I told her no more prizes until she pees or poops on the potty.

She had multiple accidents...peed in the tent, on the carpet, on the hardwood (which Brooklyn decided to stomp her feet through.grrr), on the couch twice, and while outside blowing bubbles. We went through every pair of underwear we bought yesterday! While she has a very long way to go I feel like she made a small amount of progress today. After having her sit on the potty, NOT pee or pee very little, and then 5 minutes later have an accident I figured out that she was getting too excited when she did sit and go to allow herself to empty her bladder. So I had to sit in front of her while she sat on the potty and tell her to listen to her pee and to let them all out of her belly. She would put her little hand up to her ear to listen and while concentrating on it she would pee! But would screech with excitement and stop...so I had to cheer with her and then settle her and have her listen again until she peed some more. We ended up having to do this about 4 times so she would empty her bladder...and we had far less accidents after I figured that out.

She did poop in her underwear today too...not even sure how to approach that one since Brooklyn never had a problem pooping on the potty...and never had a pooping accident.

So she is in her pull up for bedtime tonight and tomorrow is another long day of potty training. Hopefully she improves some more!

This was her feelings about potty training right before getting jammies on tonight...