A Successful Summer

At the beginning of the summer I gave myself a tentative deadline of September 1st to rid Mara Kate of her pacifiers and diapers.

We tackled the pacifier issue first and the beginning of this week I started working with her on going potty.

I think this week has been a tremendous success and although I started out a little worried and aprehensive on Monday after cleaning up several accidents I have to say Mara Kate improved by leaps and bounds each day. We haven't had a single accident since Wednesday morning and I think Mara Kate completely has down the concept of going potty.

I know there may be some accidents still to come, but I think they will really be accidents on her part as she really likes going in the potty. Potty training was much easier than I anticipated, but I think it's because she was truly ready when we started this process.

For future potty trainers: the sticker chart worked wonders with Mara Kate and giving her lots and lots of praise when she would do what we wanted her to do. She also is thrilled every time she has a bm and gets a sticker + a hersheys kiss. I think bm's are harder/scarier for them at first and the extra reward of chocolate helped her be a little more motivated to try for that.

Overall, I am very happy with how everything has gone in these areas over the Summer and I feel like we are ready to start this Fall with a big girl in tow!

A fun picture of our big girl!

A very proud Mara Kate, showing off her big girl panties as
well as the 23 stickers on her Potty Chart! :)

I think both of these pictures will be printed and put in her baby book.