Potty Training Update

We are just over two weeks into our potty training adventure and the girls are doing fantastic! Since my last post (here) we have had some bad days, some accidents, plenty of good days, some great successes, and many breakthroughs. I won't lie there had been moments when I was ready to just give up... even after the initial three days. Thankfully my husband kept reminding me that they are only 21 months so there is going to be ups and downs. Since Sunday they have really turned the corner and we are pretty much down to one or no accidents a day!!! The accidents that do occur are generally when we don't hear them say "pee-pee" or they are playing intently and they simply forget.

They are afraid to use any public restroom...so whenever we head out we bring along one of the potty seats. This seems to be working ok for now, but we definitely need to work on them using public restrooms. We will be doing a lot of traveling in July and I certainly cannot lug the potty seat around everywhere we go. If anyone has any tips on making this work any easier for them please leave me a comment! We have a little backpack with special stickers and treats for going potty outside of the house but so far they still won't go anywhere but the potty in the back of our van!

They are still in diapers at nap time and at bed time.. they generally wake from nap dry but most times they are wet in the morning. We will try to transition them out of diapers for nap some time in the next few weeks, probably before July.

I am very proud of these two girls and how far they have come.. I am glad we chose to potty train them when we did and that we went for the 3 day method. I know there will still be accidents but I am glad we are down to just one or two a day...

21 Months

Three months.... only THREE months until these girls are two!! How in the world does this happen so quickly? It seems like month after month I have the same thoughts about these girls growing up so quickly. Of course having two older daughters doesn't help matters. I started thinking about the second birthday party the other day... something that I almost immediately shut down in my head because its SO HARD!! I guess reality is sometimes hard to come to terms with but none the less here we are at 21 months...

Olivia ~ So much spunk in such a little person...She has such a fun personality always giggling, running, playing, and just being plain silly. She is the most ticklish little girl - it doesn't matter where you try and tickle her she will go into a full on belly laugh. Still very much a daddy's girl this little one loves her uncle RyRy (Ryan), giving him all the snuggles when he's around. She's become very adventurous when it comes to swimming, climbing on furniture, and just general play. She loves to "bounce" on her bed, on the couch, on mommy and daddy's bed and anything else that is conducive to bouncing. She does have a bit of a temper arching her back and balling her fist when she doesn't get something she wants... oh this girl knows how to throw a fit. She gets over it pretty quickly if we just ignore her and help her move on to something new. She has a huge love for babies - she is all about the babies, she loves to hold them, feed them, swaddle them in dish towels, even take them to the potty with her. I know I say the same thing  every month but she still likes to observe what is happening but is now more apt to get involved and do what her sister is doing. Most times her getting involved is to take something (a baby) Charlotte has for herself. She is a lover of Mickey Mouse (really Minnie) she hands me the remote most mornings saying Minnie Minnie. She also loves to watch her preschool prep DVDs - shapes and colors - I can turn these DVDs on and they will sit and watch so that I can get a few minutes to prep dinner or make lunch! She has become quite the picky eater many of the past favorites are no longer appealing to her (or Charlotte for that matter)... someday its all I can do to get them to eat breakfast and lunch is often a mixture of snacking  on fruit, crackers, and/or cheese. Dinner is usually the best meal of the day for both girls so I guess we have that going for us.
This little one with her blond hair and blue eyes knows exactly how to get what she wants and win over just about anyone's heart especially her mommy and daddy. We love you Livy Grace!

Charlotte ~ Crazy, silly, energetic, and full of life are just a few ways we describe this little one. She is always making us laugh at every turn. She repeats almost every word we say in her little baby  toddler voice and it is just so stinking adorable. She very much has a mind of her own (I am sure I have said that before) but this girl reminds me so much of Kendal - she is not afraid to do what she wants and makes it very known that she will do what she wants. She runs around the house giggling and leaving a mess in her path. She knows exactly what to do to get what she wants and is rarely told no. Her sense of humor leaves us laughing so often, its almost as if she knows what do to and how to be funny at this young age. She loves to show Olivia who is boss and is pretty much always the leader of whatever mischief is happing with the two of them. Her personality has also come on very strong this past month and like I mentioned above she is very independent, opinionated (yes, at 21 months), and full of character. She loves to dance, give this girl a beat (any beat) and she will dance to it, even if she is sitting. She is also very daring and adventurous, most recently climbing the chair onto our counter hight table. She is going to give me more gray hairs than I already have! Eating is also been a struggle with this one - mostly cheese, grapes, and any kind of berry is this little ones favorite things. Charlotte's favorite toys are everything... you can never have too much right? This girl will play with whatever is in her path... she will often give up what she is playing with to Olivia and move onto something else. She probably does love her kitchen and her shopping cart the most. Charlotte has found herself in timeout for hitting Olivia or any of us for that matter. I think she loves to say sorry "sowry" she gives the injured a pat on the head and a sowry followed by a hug. She is so very compassionate if one of her sisters gets hurt or is crying she is right there to hug them or rub their leg or back it is the sweetest.
This little one wins us over with her big smile and warm heart... we love you Charlotte!

Everyday my heart seems to grow watching these two girls become more and more like toddlers. They successfully completed potty training boot camp (aka the 3 day method) {read about it here} and are doing very well with using the potty. I often catch myself looking at them wondering how did we ever get so lucky. They bring so many smiles and much laughter to us every single day. We love you little ones!

Potty Training ~ The 3 day method

It seems impossible to say but I think we did it - the girls are officially potty trained! Potty training them has been on my mind for the last month in a half to say the least. It was clear they were no longer interested in wearing their diapers and we were trying everything possible to get them to keep those diapers on! Prior to them not wanting to wear their diapers they had each used the potty several times but nothing too consistent so we decided they weren't quiet ready yet. Eventually they started showing more signs of readiness. Telling us when they had to pee pee or taking off their diaper just after it was wet or right before.

So the decision was made - it was time. I did some of my own research, asked other twin moms, read some blogs, and tried to remember how I went about it with Kendal and Madison. Mostly I remembered how easy it was with Kendal and Madison, both right around 20 months they pretty much trained themselves. But for a list of reasons I was pretty nervous about tackling potty training two at once. I mostly followed the 3-day method as laid out by Amber Massey {Here}. She is one of my most favorite twin mamas and her success had me feeling pretty confident that we could do it too!

Day One ~ We didn't get started until the afternoon as we had to go and buy a second potty.. we decided on two potty's instead of one- we had just been using one while the girls were "practicing" and it often resulted in fights over who got to sit first. We had several pairs of undies and treats for rewards along with special books to keep them entertained while on the potty. We had our undies on and we talked about the potty and how we were to peepee in the potty not on the floor.  We set the timer for every 15 minutes and the girls had plenty of fluids to keep them needing to go potty. After the first timer went off we took them right in and Charlotte was the first to go... a lot of dancing and celebrating took place. Livy didn't go so we went back to playing. They did great with the undies although they were a little confused at first but they quickly forgot about them. We had a few accidents before nap time but for the most part there was little confusion as to what it meant to sit on the potty. Charlie did very well with only one accident; Livy was about the same. After nap we immediately went back into our undies and I had to get ready to leave for a meeting so the older girls and daddy were on potty detail. I received several texts and photos about how well the girls were doing. A few accidents here and there but for the most part they both did great for day one.

First moments in our undies!

Lots of play time 

Taking the dogs out

Some light reading

Checking on the bunny

Day Two ~ I pretty much expected for there to be some back stepping to start the day. I think wearing diapers for bed and nap time can be a bit confusing. Even though that is the direction we decided to go for now I knew it would present some challenges. We kept with the timer to start the day out but we changed it to every 20 minutes- both girls started off pretty good with a few accidents here and there but they seemed to remember what we were doing. About half way through the day Charlotte started to get really uncomfortable every time the timer went off and I would take her to the potty. She clearly was not enjoying going to the bathroom. I decided that after nap we would stop with the timer.  Olivia kept using the potty pretty well but Charlotte was having accidents pretty much every time. One of the 3 - day method posts I had read said that on day 2 you should take them out of the house for an hour... I thought there was no way I could do that!! On Tuesdays we head to my sister in-laws for dinner - she lives about 30 minutes away so I figured the car ride could count. I was so nervous taking them out of the house given the struggles we had that day, but hubby convinced me we needed to give it a try. I couldn't bring my self to put them in the car in just undies so I put them in diapers... We packed up both pottys, undies, and extra clothes. We made it to my sister in-laws and they were dry - I couldn't believe it! We put them on the potty right away and Livy went!! Charlotte continued to have accidents but then something must have clicked and she went on the potty the rest of the night! We decided we would try and leave them in their undies for the ride home and I was a nervous wreck! I kept telling them to tell mommy of they had to go potty... they didn't say a word! We got home and they were dry! To the potty we went and they both went!! A great end to day two!

Outside fun waiting for our next potty break

Day Three ~ The supposed "Magic Day" I was happy with the way we ended day 2 and I was hopeful we could continue the success into day three; the day it is supposed to "click". Livy again started out great she was even telling us when she had to go potty and was going pretty regularly with little accidents. Charlotte too was doing well, she wasn't telling us when she had to go so I decided I would still take her in every 20-30 minutes. Except when I would take her in she was still getting upset and saying "no" every time. I took to social media and some of my fellow twin moms to seek advice on how to handle what was going on with Charlotte. I was directed to another 3 - day method document/blog and upon reading some different ways to encourage using the potty I decided to just leave Charlotte alone and to watch her like a hawk. If she pee'd on the floor I would just take her into the bathroom and remind her that it is not ok to pee pee on the floor  / in our undies. I basically let her lead me and I followed her cues, this worked pretty well for her! We left the house to head to the store and I was again a nervous wreck.. neither one of the girls would go on the potty before we left so I thought there was no way we weren't going to have an accident. I took them to the bathroom as soon as we got to the store but they were both so afraid to sit on the potty there was no chance of going.  We did our shopping at lightening speed and headed home- both girls went in the potty as soon as we got home... phew. The rest of the day went pretty well, we had minimal accidents and I just kept reminding them over and over and over again- "tell mommy when you have to go potty". I would still take them into the potty if they hadn't gone in a while and most of the time they would go with no problems. Even though we had a good day three I can't really say that was the magic day or the day that it all came together. They were better and I could see progress so I was happy.

Just waiting and waiting and waiting 

Gotta stay hydrated.... and full of fluids to encourage using the potty

We are now just about a week in (today is Sunday .. day seven) and I have to say I feel confident that we are moving in the right direction. The subsequent days we had our ups and downs some days better than others. Saturday (day six) was the best by far the girls went to the potty on their own or told us each time they had to go. I think we had a total of 4 accidents that day - I was feeling like it had officially "clicked". Today.. Sunday has been rough ... Livy has been telling me pee pee after she went in her undies and Charlie would do the same.... but once again we ended the day well.

I am learning that the most important thing with potty training and especially potty training twins is to be consistent ... hands down. I noticed that if I would take my eyes off them for a few minutes or if I hadn't reminded them in a while to tell me if they had to go that is when the accidents would happen. I also learned that it worked best for us to just let them guide the way by watching their cues or telling us they have to go potty. Even if we hear the word potty or pee pee we have to take them in no exceptions. We made the mistake several times upon hearing them say these magical words of asking them "do you have to go potty" the answer is always no... ALWAYS. The would pretty much wet their undies minutes after we asked them. I can pretty much guarantee the frustration will set in and you will feel like its not going to work or maybe its too soon - but its so important to not let them see you frustrated (trust me I know) because they will not want to even try to use the potty.

We still have a bit to go - but I am confident they understand to use the potty and they are beginning to understand how to listen to their body when they have to go. I do recommend the 3 - day method no matter which version you chose just remember to be flexible and patient with your little ones, and don't be afraid to do what works best for you!!

How we make our trips to the store :) 

Selfies with the girls after a successful potty break