Day 9

Well first off, we made it through the first week without Jon. I was surprised at how well both Lucy and I did, as well as our dog Kelly. We really only had one bad day and that was due to my unexpected hormones. Kelly is a little depressed since I can't play with her quite the same as Jon, but I've been doing my best to get her back on a walking schedule and giving her attention once Lucy is asleep.

As for Lucy, she's been giving Daddy kisses pretty regularly over the web cam and on her special pillowcase. There are times when she wants things that only Daddy can do in her eyes, like make her eggs, but she is slooooowly starting to understand that Mommy can do them too. Me, I'm still taking it one day at a time. I miss him like crazy at night when the house gets quiet. But I'm grateful for all the conversations we've been able to have so far.

And now on to my first installment of adventures in Potty Training...

I have to say-I started this with high hopes. I was certain that Lucy could master the potty training in one weekend. After all, isn't that what the 3 day potty training book promised? Lucy has been quick to pick up everything else I've tried to teach her, why not this too?

Needless to say my daughter was NOT trained in 3 days. But each day we've progressed a little more. I have found that wearing real underwear does help her to understand more when to tell me she has to go. The first day, she'd tell me right after she's already gone on the floor. Day 1 was filled with lots cleaning the potty off the tile floor (a positive step in my opinion-she never went on the carpet/furniture/chairs). A few extra loads of laundry later I figured out that wearing pants and socks would have to be abandoned for the day.

Day 2 started out well. Dry diaper in the morning=peepee on the potty chair! It was another step forward and we were so excited we emailed Daddy the second after it happened. Sadly though, the trend did not continue. We tried a few times to make it to the potty only to have accidents on the way there. But at least she was starting to get it and starting to tell me "Mommy PEEPEE!!!" (I have got to get that on camera soon-she is so excited when she says it!)
We went to a friends house that night for dinner. Best part was everyone there was potty trained so Lucy was able to see what big girls did. Thanks to her good friend Rori, she learned how to sit on the big girl potty without a potty seat!

Day 3 started out well too. Dry diaper in the morning, but only the teeniest pee on the potty chair. I think she was afraid for some reason. We went back to the underwear thing and she started telling me again when she went peepee/poop. I still found a positive moment in the day when she decided to start sitting on the toilet instead of her Elmo chair.

Overall, I see everything that happened this weekend in a positive light. Lucy learned something new about potty training every day. I'm proud that she would rather sit on the "mommy potty" (that's what she calls the toilet) then on her potty chair. And I'm proud that we no longer have to battle to try going potty every hour. This is definitely harder then I imagined it would be. And certainly a tougher task since I have to do it alone. But Jon has been great about it all. He tells her how proud he is when we tell him about her successes and doesn't scold her about her accidents. He tries his best to help from where he is, which gives me the encouragement to keep trying.

I'm not ready to give up yet. Each night when she goes to bed, I think about the one step forward she took that day and praise her for it. I remind her what a big girl she is and how she's going to be a great big sister. This potty training thing is going to take a while, but I've set my goal date as Oct 1. That way I will *hopefully* have a few weeks off from changing diapers before baby Carter gets here.