Sunday, September 4, 2011

Many people say "Don't stress, your baby will walk/talk/potty/etc. when they are ready. They will let you know." Those people weren't lying, or at least not when it comes to my child. This statement couldn't be anymore true.


Three perfect examples. Example one, when MK was learning to walk, we tried and tried and tried some more. We worked so hard. She would take a few steps and then fall. She just never seem interested or ready. She would rather crawl or have someone carry her. Then around seventeen months she started "trying" a little harder. And then one afternoon, right around eighteen months, in the middle of a crawl, she just stood up and started walking. And that was that. Example two, the bottle. I knew the bottle was going to be difficult. We had cut all other bottles out, but she was still getting one bottle right before bed. We tried several times to go cold turkey, but she just cried and cried and cried. Bedtime became a nightmare so we gave in and continued. Then, one night as I was getting ready to give her a bottle she said, "No bah-bah, Mommy. I big girl." And that was that. And example three, the potty. MK got a potty for Christmas last year and we've been talking lots about it and encouraging her to go. Some days she would and some days she wouldn't. Sometimes weeks or months would pass before she would use the potty again. At the start of this summer I devoted an entire week to "Potty Training Boot Camp". Tremendous fail. She wasn't ready. Fast forward to early last week. While at Roddey's, where several others are learning to use the potty, she began telling Roddey she need to go. Then, she would come home in the afternoon and tell us. She even started waking us up at night because she needed to go. We were prompting her or encouraging her at all. It was all her. This past Friday she stayed in "big girl pants" ALL. DAY. LONG. and only had one accident late that evening. Yesterday we spent the majority of the day on the lake, but we took her potty with us (Roddey's genius idea). MK asked to use it twice while we were out. We are so proud of her! I just can't believe that the week before we were on diapers 24/7 and this week, all because MK was ready, we are wearing big girl pants. Wow.


Sometimes it's so hard to trust when our little ones are ready for things. We stress and worry about when and where those huge milestones will take place. But, usually when we do give it to them, we have HUGE results. 

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