Mission: Accomplished

Claire showed signs of being ready to potty train from a very young age.  She has stayed dry through the night 99% of the time since she was 9 months old (seriously).  Her brother is sorta following in her footsteps too. She has also been very self-aware for a LONG time.  On my maternity leave last year I considered trying to potty train her, even though she was only 18-21 months old.  No dice.  I had a week off this past August and I was determined to start and finish potty training that week.  Well, it lasted just eight hours before I realized that while she was ready, she had no desire (so I guess that means she wasn't really ready).  Fine with me.  Frankly, I thought diapers were probably more convenient anyways.  I am a believer in waiting until they are fully ready to potty train.  Doing it on their watch, not mine.  If I could see within a few hours that she wasn't ready, I wasn't going to push it.  

So we gave up on that day in August and didn't push it again.  Fast forward three months.  A couple weeks ago Claire started saying, "there's something wrong with my diaper!". There was nothing wrong with it; she simply found them uncomfortable now.  I thought- a ha!  THIS may be when she's ready! 

So we started potty training on November 22nd.  And I think I can safely say, today, just ten days later, that she's potty trained.  We haven't had to go in public yet, so that will be another test, but she goes perfectly well at home with zero accidents.  I want to give a shout-out to my mom-in-law too, who was a huge help. 

Exhibit A: NOT READY (20 months old)

Exhibit B: READY (31 months old)

It didn't help that Claire hasn't been able to watch any other children go potty.  It should help Brody and Max when it's their turn to potty train because they'll have Claire for an example. 

So proud of my big girl.  Way to go, Claire!