potty time

I read a ton about a process called Elimination Communication, which is a really amazing concept of basically potty training your infant. People all over the world do elimination communication as a part of how they raise their children. Their thought process is, You watch for signs when your child is hungry - you feed him or her. You watch for when your child is sleepy - you put him or her to sleep. Hence, you watch for when your child is eliminating - and you put him or her on the potty to eliminate. It pretty much makes sense when you think of in terms of watching your child and reacting to what your child is trying to communicate. That's what every parent wants - to understand what their child is trying to say.

Okay, so while the concept is revolutionary to my mind, I knew I didn't have the commitment level or confidence in myself to do that with Cecilia. However, I would like to have her comfortable on the potty and know that that is where we go to the potty earlier than the typical 2 years old potty training time. It made sense to me, when I read in The Baby Whisperer, to start "potty training" your child at around 9 months old (we started around 12 months old). Her philosophy is that at the age of 9 months, a child wants to please you and finds pleasure in pleasing you, whereas, at the "typical" age of 18 months-2 years old, a child is turning into a rebel in front of your very eyes! He or she is not typically trying to please you in everything that he or she does, they are rebelling in almost every way.

We didn't start putting Cecilia on the potty at set times, and we (still) aren't very consistent with how often we put her on, but I wanted her to get used to being on the potty - I wanted her to see us get REALLY excited (yyyaayyyy!) when she goes to the potty, and we wanted her to not be scared of the potty or get to the age where she wants to do everything opposite of what we say.

10/365

It's really almost the cutest thing in the whole world to see her on the potty - and even cooler when she actually goes! We don't sit for longer than 5 minutes at a time on the potty, and I try to remind myself to not get frustrated when she doesn't go - I just want her to have the experience. It's so much fun to sit with her and read [andreadandreadandreadandread]. Our next step is to be more consistent with her, and we'll see how it goes!

"After everything we've learned, we've finally come to terms: We are the outsiders." ~needtobreathe