Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Princesses don't wear diapers!

Bribery with jelly beans hasn't worked. Promises of painted toenails hasn't worked. Asking my mom to do it hasn't worked. It's time to take drastic measures to get Elle potty trained.

She's giving me signs that she's ready but so far we're not having much luck. Or rather, any luck. So a couple of days ago I came up with a new potty training tactic that Nell would never approve of so let's just not tell her ok? (Nell has a really cute potty training story here that you should read.)

I told Elle that princesses do not wear diapers, that they go in the toilet. Then I promised her a phone call from a princess if she went potty in the toilet. She squealed with delight and chose .... um, Mickey Mouse. Not really a princess but ok, I can work with that. Then we had the following conversation:

Me: Where does Cinderella go potty?
Elle: In da toilet?
Me: Right! And where does Jasmine go potty?
Elle: In da toilet!
Me: Right! And where does Sleeping Beauty go potty?
Elle: Seeping Dooty goes potty in da toilet!
Me: That's right! Where does Ariel go potty?
Joseph: In the ocean!
Elle: In da ocean!
Me: Bad example. Where do all the other princesses go potty?
Elle: In da potty!
Joseph: Unless you're Ariel! Then you go in the ocean!
Me: Is Elle a beautiful princess?
Elle: I a beauuuuutiful princess!
Me: So where do you need to go potty?
Elle: In the toilet!
Me: Good girl!

Two minutes later.....

Elle: Uh oh! I go potty in my diaper!

The next step is to go and buy her a Disney Princess potty chair. Because of course there's such a thing. And I'll be damned if I'm taking this kid to Disney World still in diapers. That gives us nearly four months to get this potty training thing down. Can it be done? Will the pretty princess potty training method work? Probably not.

13 comments:

Leslie said...

Oh,oh,oh . . . my favorite potty training book EVER . . . "The Princess and the Potty"! You NEED it.

And (deserving of the overused OMG), it's on sale at Overstock.com for less than five bucks:
http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/The-Princess-And-The-Potty/1127950/product.html?cid=123620&fp=F&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=3284861

Yeah! I feel useful.

Anonymous said...

I feel obligated to point out that it is easier to take a kid in diapers to Disney than to have a newly and not terribly well potty trained child on your hands. There's something about standing in line for an hour for a ride, only to have to make a mad dash off the line to find a restroom that spoils the experience. If you don't have real success in time for her to learn how to "hold it" for a while you might want to think of waiting until you get back.

Sam said...

Ditto what anonymous said, but in a more appealing manner. I HATED the newly potty trained phase. Dashing off of the freeway to find a bathroom, car seats soaked with urine. YUCK! Not to mention the horror of a toddler grabbing onto a public toilet. OMG. At one point I think I would have preferred diapers until he reached college.

Jen said...

laggin - Thanks for the reccomendation! I'm going to check into that.

anonymous - I see what you're saying but I'm really hopeful that we can get her to get the hang of it soon so that she'll have lots of time to "practice" before we go.

sam - I know what you're saying! It still pains me to take Joseph into public restrooms and he's nearly 8! Whatever happens is ok and if we have to do diapers I'll deal with it. In a perfect world though I would have her potty trained.

Alison Wonderland said...

It could totally work!

Eile said...

I was just about to tell you about the Princess and the potty book but apparently others got to it first.

Good luck with the potty training! Its a long road (my 2 boys 7 & 4) still have no aim!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Princess-and-the-Potty/Cheyette-Cheyette-Lewison/e/9780689878381

Cathy said...

You don't go to Disney 'til Sept, right? If you get her trained soon she'll be good to go while there.
Also - here's my little potty training story:

http://mccathy.blogspot.com/search/label/potty%20training

Jen said...

alison - If it works I'm going to write a book about it and become a millionare.

eile - My 8 year old has no aim either. For that matter my neither does my husband. I sometimes think they aim for the seat and not the bowl.

cathy - She did pee in the toilet for the first time ever this morning so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anonymous said...

I will never look at a Disney princess the same again. I guess I never realized they went potty at all.
YF

Jen said...

Yf - Yea! The return of YF. Or rather, MF. I thought you didn't read my blog anymore. I should have known that it would be a Disney related post that would bring you back.

Anonymous said...

In my experience, Disney Princesses can solve almost anything at this age. Good luck!

Jen said...

andi - It's true. Princesses have mad powerz when it comes to toddlers.

Anonymous said...

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