I'm a big kid now!

Isn't that the old Pull-Ups commercial song?? Well, we are singing it in our house! I woke up on January 1 and thought "This is it. I'm done with "big kid" diapers. If all the 2 year olds at our NYE party are potty trained, then Anna can be too." We immediately went to big girl panties all day that Friday and we haven't turned back. Anna had a few accidents the first 4 days (about 6) and hasn't had one since.

Now, I am by no means an expert at potty training and actually have to say that I didn't do much to prepare us for it. But, it was easy. What I learned with the first child is this: parent and child have to be mutually ready to go through this or it's going to be way too stressful.

Anna was showing signs and interest back in March when I had 8 week old Megan to deal with. Although we purchased a potty for Anna at that time, I never really let her try to learn because I knew I wouldn't have the time or energy. During the summer, I tried several times thinking it was a good time to let her run around in just her underwear and that was a big mistake. She wanted nothing to do with it and even staked out places in the house to have accidents - behind her rocking chair, under the table, in her closet. It definitely didn't work. By the time this session of potty training came around everyone was mutually ready and anxious to achieve something. We were all positive and it was a pleasant experience.

Congratulations Anna! You're a big kid now! And I have to say that it's a bit sad. It's quite weird seeing my baby girl run around in her little Elmo or Ariel underwear.

The photo below was a strange mommy moment for me. We built a camp that day and the girls were crawling in and out of it. Anna let me put her hair in a pony tail - which is an accomplishment in itself - and she had her little Elmo undies on. It was surreal to see her little diaperless bottom running in and out and made me want to freeze time. Here I had my two baby girls enjoying this wonderful, innocent, childhood moment and I knew that I would find it passing all too soon. Anna was for so long toddling between the baby and preschool age and this little underwear moment made it official: she's considered a preschooler :( ...and tomorrow's my baby's first birthday so I better stop writing before I really start shedding some tears....