arwen kinda knows that she needs to go to the toilet to poop and pee but we never really officially trained her. until last weekend. since we've kinda got the sitter situation pretty much settle, for now at least - her sitter, my neighbour whose maid has been taking care of arwen still wants to take care of arwen without the maid. alhamdulillah coz i know she'll be in good hands. only she's old and i don't know if she can handle changing arwen's diapers and whatnot. thus, we're training arwen to go pee and poop in the toilet right now, so by november, she's independent. well, kinda.
potty training a tod is definitely not for the weak. you've got to have patience that would make angels quiver, the calm of Long Beach at Perhentian in July, the determination of Oprah Winfrey, and the excitement of a bunch of cheerleaders on acid when your kid finally makes it.
if you've been reading up on toddler manuals, you know that the sure fire way to successfully train a toddler to go potty is by 1. setting an example. with toddlers, most of the time it's monkey see monkey do. so i'd normally take arwen along with me when i need to pee. well, okay fine, it's because she doesn't want to be left alone and i really need to pee so i don't have a choice but to take her with me. but at least she knows what the toilet is for.
2. setting a reward system. i wanted to give arwen stars for every time she made potty. but i figured, she wouldn't know what to do with the stars anyway. so, i've gotta give her something more tangible than stars, right? at first i wanted to give her balls. she loves "bolaball" and i love the sound she makes when she says "bolaball!" ... i figured, yeah, that's it! i'll give her a ball every time she pees in the toilet and two for every time she poops. good idea right? until my brother came home and suggested balloons.
yes! balloon is better than balls. at least when the house is populated by balloons, we can simply stick a needle and make noise. and she loves balloons more than balls anyway. and i have 3 packets of balloons i got from cleaning the office some time ago. i've got enough stock to last potty training.
we started on saturday, after her afternoon nap. we were alone at home so it's easier for me to keep an eye on her in case she 'let go' at random places. i told her that i wont put on her diaper, so if she felt like peeing or pooping, let me know. and if she pees in the toilet, she'll get 1 balloon, and if she poops, she'll get two balloons. so from 3-6 pm, there were a total of 5 fails (4 pees and a poop) and one balloon. that's when i realize that my god, my daughter pees a lot! second day, we tried longer - from 12-6pm. there were 3 fails and 2 balloons! we're making progress, yeah!
3. follow the plan through. since i'm working, the only time i can potty train her is during the weekends when we're home. well, yeah, we tell the sitter we're potty training her and also about the balloon system but i'm not so sure they'll follow through with my plans. just as i sent arwen to the sitter yesterday, she was asking Su for a balloon and Su was about to give in and blow the balloon when i stopped her and told arwen to go to the toilet first if she wants a balloon.
almost fail. but you know .. we'll see. the training continues.
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