We have two preschoolers now! Erin only has a few months left of preschool, but for those few months, we have one drop-off/pickup! And its amazing! Ava is currently 2.5 years old. I would have preferred sending her a bit later, but we wanted to give her a little overlap with Erin so it would be an easier transition. Ava did great her first day. Apparently she just walked off and yelled "Bye Daddy!". I'm sure having her older sister there with her made it all the easier. Oh and Erin loves that her little sister is there with her too. I like to call her a helicopter sister (which is a positive thing in my opinion). She tells me she often checks in on Ava to see how she's doing. So cute right? I love it. It's been about a full month now and teachers say Ava is doing great. I can already tell she's learning tons and she loves that she has a lunch pail of her own to carry.
Potty Training
With Ava starting preschool, I wanted to get her potty trained as well. Everyone says the 3 day method works like a charm, and to some extent it does. It gets the bulk of the training done. But honestly, potty training takes a good 2 weeks. The first 3 days is where you lay the groundwork/foundation. I'm all about keeping them pants-less during these days. It does get quite messy and nerve wreaking, but totally manageable. I just kept her isolated to certain areas of the house (anyplace with no carpet) and I put plastic sheets for her to sit on when she wanted to sit on the couch. Day 1 had a lot of accidents, which was expected. Day 2 had less than a handful of accidents and by Day 3 she was down to 1-2 accidents. Oh and most of these accidents were poopoo accidents (not kool). After the 3 days, she was still learning about timing and when to tell us she had to go. This is the part that takes more than 3 days to train. The first week we'd have to have the potty right next to her when she had to go because she wasn't giving herself/us enough notice and often she had already peed by the time we reached the potty. By week 2 she was able to notify us with enough time to get to the potty. Then there's the whole being in another environment issue. They may have been going to the potty accident free at home, but there's only so much you can train in a controlled environment. Once you put them in a different setting, i.e. school, restaurant, etc., it will cause a bit confusion for them so you should definitely expect regression. Oh and not peeing during napping will take longer to train and same goes with poopoo. Fun stuff right??
A few tips:
-Treats can make a difference. Ava can be easily bribed (not sure if that's a good thing), but it worked in our favor during potty training. Jelly beans and pez did it for us.-Be ridiculously overjoyed and affirming.
-Buy lots of cheap panties. You will go through a lot.
-Try to skip the toddler sized potty chair. Sometimes kids get so used to using the little potty chair that they get nervous/scared and aren't able to use the regular sized ones. It makes the transition a bit harder for when you're not at home and you don't have the toddler sized potty on hand. I recommend training with the toddler seat that goes on the adult potty.
t's been about 2 full weeks now. She has an accident here and there and her poopoos are still a work in process, but she's doing great. So many changes/transitions for little Ava. A big year for her! Also, random update, but Ava is finally eating meat! Hooray! I was worried about having to pack two different lunches (one with meat and one without) but now we can pack the girls
the same thing. She eats meat!
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