Ava 20 months old and an attempt at Potty Training

Ava turned 20 months old yesterday. I cannot believe how fast time flies. While it feels like just yesterday that she was born, I also can't remember her as a baby. She is so big and full of life. So how did we spend her 20 month birthday. Well, I decided that it was time to start potty training. I have to admit, my heart was only 1/2 in it, so I guess that may account for the occurrences of yesterday. I bought the book "Potty Training 1-2-3" by Gary Ezzo from a suggestion of one of my friends that has 3 kids. I remember seeing a Facebook post from her a while ago that she was going to get her first son potty trained over the weekend. I thought to myself, you must be joking. She wasn't. This book talks about how you can have your child day trained by the end of day one. The key is the knowing the child's readiness. The idea in this book is that you teach your child to be dry and clean. Dry refers to being potty trained and clean refers to bowel trained. You show your child what happens first with a doll/stuffed animal by rewarding them for asking quite frequently if their underwear is dry and then sitting them on the potty and if the child goes potty, you double reward for that. This way, you aren't always rewarding for going in the potty, because that can cause them to not use it on their own as you, the parent, will be constantly putting them on it in 15-30 minute increments. Now, this is the progressive version. He offers the same principles for people who don't have 4 days to block out to focus on this and they can do it over time.
Anyway, I got a stuffed animal, Pearl, and we put big girl panties on her and I walked Ava through the process. She loved getting Pearl's treats when Pearl was dry and went potty on the potty chair.  She was even more excited to pull the pee-pee pot out of the potty and dump it into the toilet. She was clapping and so excited. Then we started with Ava. The first potty experience was an accident. Now, I know there are going to be a lot of accidents, but I guess mentally I wasn't prepared for them. The second time around, she did go potty in the potty chair, but as soon as she realized that she was peeing, she kinda stopped herself. Now she was so proud of herself and got her special treat, but within 5 minutes, another accident. I don't think she was done the first time. Then it was just accident after accident. I only had one more pair of big girl panties left. I even resorted to rinsing them with soap and water and putting them in the dryer because there was no way I was making it through the day. Finally, after lunch, I KNEW the big #2 was coming, so I was watching her like a hawk. At one point I looked over at her and I just knew, so I ran to her and said, do you have to poo-poo? And as I was saying it, I was picking her up to bring her to the potty and knew that she was going right then. I moved her quickly to the potty, but it was too late and the tears and crying followed. It was hard to reset her after that. I think she was traumatized. (well, not really, but it was hard for her). So I put her in a pull up and gave up. I know she is showing signs of being ready and we could probably do it, but I think she may not be completely ready and that is the key in this book. She doesn't really need to have her diaper changed every time she pees and that is one really good indicator that she is ready. Plus, every time I asked her if she was dry, she would wine and say No. And even after I would say, you get a treat if you are dry, she would still say no and run away wining. So, on to plan B. I am going to show Ava everyday, with the help of Pearl, what we do. We will reward Pearl for dry diapers throughout the day and when she goes Potty, we will reward her then too. I am going to STOCK UP on big girl panties and pick 3 times a day for Ava to practice and not make a big deal out of it, but keep her in diapers. Then, either next weekend or the weekend after that, depending on how she does with the practices, we will start again and go cold turkey with the big girl panties.
There are 3 stages of readiness that he talks about in his book and every child is different, but most kids aren't ready until 24-36 months. That is mostly due to being able to control the bladder. She still doesn't wake up from naps dry, which is another indicator, not mandatory, but an indicator nonetheless, that she is ready. So we will try again. Like I said earlier, I guess I was only in it half way and you really have to be in it for the long haul. We had to be home bound ALL day and that makes it hard too since the weather is finally starting to get nice and all she wants to do is play outside. Here is a picture of Pearl, if you are wondering....

Speaking of which, we spent a good majority of yesterday out in the front yard, which is her new favorite place to play and my least favorite place for her to play, but she helped me pick weeds. Every time she would pick a weed, she would say "more, more" and I would show her another weed to pick. What a helper.  She is starting to use 2 word sayings and like I have mentioned before, copying every thing we say.She says "all done", "oh no", "oh dear", "oh man" and a couple more that I can't think of right now. I love to watch her mimic things I do. For example, yesterday, I was flipping through a magazine with her and I licked my finger to turn the page and I looked up at her and she was licking her fingers. I busted up laughing because it was really funny! She loves to make us laugh and does it quite often. I can't imagine my life without her and am so blessed to have her.