M-girl Milestones!

My goals for M-girl following Christmas were the following: Weaning (she had a minor chip on a tooth that was unpleasant, and her second birthday was approaching), saying "goodbye" to "chupis" (her pacifiers), no more bottles (a later habit from when she needed a big load of milk to get a night's sleep, but which turned out to cause a lot of stomach problems), and perhaps an introduction to the potty. She weaned at exactly 22 months with no trouble at all, and I was expecting Newbie very soon after. She gave up the bottle of milk or milk substitutes this summer, and
"chupi" has ceased to exist to her. Such a relief! Unfortunately, all this maturing has led to very little napping, but I hope to re-establish that in the fall, even if for an hour a day!

Around the time she weaned, she begged for a pink frog potty at the store, and I bought it. It sat in the bathroom mostly collecting dust or being used to climb up to things, although she would use it appropriately on occasion. Then this summer she began to take off her diaper and refuse to put another one on. I hadn't wanted to do this now! I wanted to wait until school started, but I couldn't let her pee on the floor either! So I got books and videos from the library and from Amazon, ones that had worked for the boys, and ones we'd never seen before. I set up a little DVD player in the kitchen and let her sit on the potty and watch the Elmo and Potty Power DVDs as much as she wanted. For a few weeks, she peed on the floor a lot. Then she went back to diapers. Then two weeks ago, it all clicked! She mastered pee one week and poo the next! It was amazing! She has internalized the message of these irritating videos so thoroughly that she quotes them as she's doing the various steps in good potty use and related hygiene.

A little musing I've done on the subject of potty training and advice: There are people who give potty advice because their kid potty trained themselves, and these people don't know how hard it can be with a resistant or too-busy child. Plenty of other generous and gracious souls (Danielle Haley, for example) know better and fully acknowledge that their kid potty trained themselves and have no obtrusive advice to offer. There are also people who can follow every step and read every book and still fight an uphill battle for months or even years to establish potty training/learning with their children. I know I'm in the third group, and I hope I'm in the second. I know better than to be in the first. It's not about knowledge or method. It's about the kid. Tell me that I should've used Elimination Communication with all my kids, and I'll get stabby ;).