Potty Trained!!! (before her 2nd birthday!)

Kate & Jackson... not sure why she looks so serious in this picture... she was BEYOND excited to be wearing her "big girl undies". Of course, Jackson ran around without pants because Kate was and so he figured we would allow it. (we did, btw)

Since Parker had July 5th off (since July 4th fell on a Sunday, the gov gave them Monday off), we thought it would be a great opportunity to potty train Kate over the weekend and give us an extra day just in case... Jackson was potty-trained by Day 3, but didn't get the poop thing until Day 5. (Anyhoo... maybe TMI? We're talking about little kids here, though.) We began first thing Friday morning...

see? this is how excited she really was! Look at that adorable face! How can you not just be in love with her?

Kate "reading" her latest Friend magazine and drinking a whole lot of juice (this 3-day method requires tons of juice/liquid to give the potty-trainee ample opportunity to feel that urge to run to the toilet)

Those are her "big poop prizes" in the background... lots of rewards for great potty training!

Funny thing is, I don't think she really connected the two concepts. I'm not even sure she was that excited about getting a prize. Kate was just happy and content that she was able to relax enough on the toilet to relieve herself and get to flush her very own potty (before, she & Jackson would take turns--no kidding--who would GET to flush the toilet after he used it)

Kate was a little apprehensive on the toilet at first (no accidents, she would just hold it FOREVER), so I pulled out Jackson's old potty chair to see if it would help... fun for flushing (the crowd cheers for you), but didn't really notice a difference in her ability to relax. The first day (Friday) was tough, mostly because she was crying because she knew she needed to go and could not relax enough to let anything out, but did NOT want to go in her big girl undies. Eventually, Daddy actually talked her into it and the next 2 days were spent basically just learning to relax more quickly. Seriously! WAY easier than Jackson and I thought he was pretty stinkin' easy, (especially for a BOY who was 2 years, 4 months old). The first night she wet in the middle of the night. Oh, man! I wasn't 100% convinced she was staying dry at night, so I knew this might be an issue. However, nights 2 & 3 she woke up once in the middle of the night to tell us she needed to go potty. Night 4... straight through... dry in the morning!! Hooray! I think she maybe had 5 or 6 total accidents and those were mostly because we weren't paying close enough attention. Kate was AMAZING!! Way to go, girl!