Fun Ways to Potty Train

I know that many of my friends are potty training or attempting to do so with their young toddlers.  This can be a frustrating time for many parents, and the child too.. Here are few ideas that may help motivate and encourage your child to POTTY!!   

Make Potty Time a Celebration

There are few things that little kids love more than a party.  By adding a little song and dance to potty training time, your kiddo will be all to anxious to use the potty.  Create a special song and dance that is not used at any time other than potty time.  It should be silly and all about your child’s favorite things!  Create special lyrics:  ”MillerBug is a big boy now.  He used the potty, WOW!  Look how big he is when he goes!  It makes me want to tickle his toes!”  Yes, completely silly but by adding the toe tickle and acting it out every time, you’ll get squeals of joy!  Now add in a little hopping around (this mama can’t dance) and some silly moves and you’ll have a performance that your child wants to see over and over again!  Then, by only performing it when they use the potty, you’ll encourage your child to head to the potty any chance they get in order to have a celebration!

Create a Treat Bag

What’s a party without a goodie bag, right?  Well, same goes for a Potty Party.  Get a brown paper bag, glue a picture of a potty and your child on the front and add some ribbons to make it festive.  Then put treats inside – this can be something like fruit chewies, M&Ms, even raisins if that’s your kiddos favorite.  Then set the expectation that when they successfully use the potty, they get to get one treat out of the bag.  Put the bag somewhere that they can see it but not reach it.  **TIP – don’t keep it in the bathroom – ewwww!**  Then allow them to be the ones that gets the bag down and gets a treat out (with your help) once they have successfully used the potty.

Make a Sticker Chart

For some reason, children love nothing more than stickers.  I think it’s just ingrained in their little brains.  And while I try to avoid stickers in the car (they always end up on your windows, right), the bathroom is a fabulous place for them!  Take a piece of poster board and make a potty chart.  List each day of the week and then make a box for each time you want your child to use the potty.  Attach a plastic baggy to the bottom and fill it with stickers.  Then, each time your child successfully uses the potty, allow them to take one sticker out of the bag and place it on the poster board.  You will be surprised how long they will stand and longingly look at the board and once they figure out what it takes to put a sticker on it, they’ll be waiting for you at the potty each time.

Use Fun Training Pants

Chances are, you don’t want to go straight from diapers to cloth underwear.  If you do, you’ll likely end up with quite a few messes.  However, with training pants the way they are today, you can still give your child a super cool motivation to use the potty.  With different brand choices, you can find pretty much an character you want on training pants.  So find your kiddos favorite.  If you can’t, you can even use a sticker on the front of their pull up to make it super special.  Then store your fun big kid diapers where your child can see them.  Each time you put them on, explain that they are super special big kid pants and that he or she can only wear them while they are working on going to the potty.  The not fun part is taking them away if your child does not attempt to use the potty but you’ll quickly see that they want to earn the privilege of wearing the super fun training pants.

Make the Potty Party Ready

You want your child to WANT to potty in the bathroom, right?  So decorate that toilet!  Window crayons are a great way to do this and wipe off easily.  Draw balloons, their favorite characters and more.  Make it their special potty and put a potty ring on it that is bright and fun.  By making the bathroom one of the coolest places in the house to be, your child will run towards it instead of from it.  Allow your kiddo to help make make it special and get them in on the decorating.  Then explain that going to the potty is a special event and that they need a special place for it to happen.

Potty training is never simple.  But if your child is ready and you use the right techniques it can be a special time that both you and your child will enjoy celebrating instead of a frustrating time that will end with you and your child in tears.  So, stop thinking of it as a task and start thinking of it as a great reason to have fun and celebrate a super fabulous milestone!

Borrowed from jmanandmillerbug.com 

Growing Up

I was raised in the Piney Woods of East Texas, in a small town called Karnack, located just miles from the famous Caddo Lake.  My parents are the best, dad worked hard for our family, but always had time to spend with us.  Dad was a logger by trade, working many days from sun-up to sunset.  My mom was a home maker, tending to us, and the house all day. 

My older brother was mainly into cars, my sister, loved books, or spending time with our cousins, my brother John, well he was always into mischief, or following dad around as he worked on his trucks. As for me, I was the animal lover, always bringing home something.  I am thankful for parents who allowed me to do so, I always had chickens, ducks, geese, goats, dogs, and more..   To others we may not have had much, but to me, we were the richest. 

We were raised in a conservative home, as children we didnt have TVs, video games, or such.  We spent our time playing outside with cousins, making up our own games, or playing old favorites. 
However, our life wasnt all play, we had chores to do as well, In the spring we help mom with the veggie garden, when we had one, summer time we either helped inside, or cleaned yards, in the Fall we would rake the massive amount of leaves that fell from the many oak trees in our yard.  Raking was not a favorite of any of ours, but we did it, often making big piles and jumping into them..  I remember several times our black lab dog would join into the fun.  The Winter in East Texas can get very cold, we normally always had ice storms, everything would freeze over, and we would be stuck home..  One year I remember we were without lights for two weeks, thankful for gas heat. We would all bundle in the living room to sleep at night. 

Then when I was just twelve years old, my father had a sudden heart attack and passed during the night, this sparked a new chapter in our lives.  Being so young I simply wanted to believe it was a bad dream that I would wake up from, but I never did.  It was during this time, that I learned the true meaning of having a loving family.  Everything that I had learned in my short life, would help me to become the person I am today.  Being the oldest child at home, and with my mom having to take work outside the home to make ends meet, I stepped up and helped with home duties.  During the following years after my father passed, my mom's sister moved in with us, she help tend to our home and us kids while mom cleaned homes for other people.  I was determined to make the best of this time, and do my part.  My aunt taught me to cook, clean, and how to do so much more.  God was great to us.  Most of all my family stayed together, it was a hard time for all of us, especially my mom, but she never blamed God, she would take us to church each week, and made sure we knew that all our blessings where from God. 

I am thankful today for all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and the many friends we have that helped us during these times, but most of all, For my God, who kept his hand on us, and always met our needs! 

Sincerely,

Jesse Adams