If you have to go potty, stop! and go right away...

...flush and wash and be on your way!

If you are fans of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood then you know this potty song.  We sing it like every fifteen minutes in this house.

I've been low-stress about the whole potty thing.  If she wants to sit on the potty or wear panties, great!  If not, no big deal.  Scarlett has a strong personality and I just didn't think it was worth the fight.  I would ask her if she wanted to wear panties that day (usually some sort of a bribe was involved) then I would take her to the toilet every hourish.  Once she had a potty accident or we left the house I would put her in a diaper and be done for the day.  Well last week she told me she wanted to go potty "all by myself".  So I showed her how to get the seat on and everything on her own.  After that she was potty trained!  I would hear her open the bathroom door and just take care of it all on her own!!!  We haven't tried panties out of the house yet, but we've had almost a full week of successful potty days (with only a few accidents)!  :-)  

After successfully going potty she usually gets a treat.  I found her bag of Halloween candy (don't judge) and that was very motivating.  I think she sometimes has "just a little tinkle" just to get "a Halloween treat, please!"  Whatever works....

She calls everything poop.  "I need to go poop, mommy" means just going to the bathroom.  I thought that going #2 would be another hurdle but it hasn't been a big deal at all.  Luckily each time I've been there so I can wipe her, I need to teach her to call me in there when she goes #2.  Or Uncle Dave!  ;-)  (inside joke)

One thing that all this pottying has forced is LOTS of new rules.  Lean forward when you go pee pee.  Wipe your crotch all the way to your bum.  Only use 4 squares of TP.  Only one pump of soap.  Wash inside, outside, and between your fingers.  Only a little lotion.  No eating the lotion.  No putting "paw prints" (ie: lotion hand prints) on the glass.  We put the panties on with the "instructions" in the inside and on the back. etc...

We have had a lot of learning opportunities.  And a lot of time out opportunities as we've enforced these rules.  One day I put on a new roll of TP.  That was too tempting.  I found this:

I'm sure that's a familiar site to most parents.  We had to use the TP from a grocery bag for the next little while (not going to waste all that good TP!)  Right after we took care of this Scarlett said our lunch prayer, it went something like this: "...thankful I poop on the potty... and I made a huge mess... made a bad choice... sit in time out on the stairs... clean it up with mommy..."  haha!  I love listening to her pray.  Jake and I have learned a lot about how she feels and what's on her mind through her prayers.  I love how simple yet sweet they are.  And they remind us that our prayers are conversations with our loving Heavenly Father.

Like I said before, Scarlett has a strong, independent personality.  When we ask her a question she often automatically replies no, then switches to yes "nooouuuuhhhaaa".  We have learned from the Love and Logic book to give her choices to help her feel like she's in control.  It's taken some practice, but we're getting better.  Instead of asking "do you want lunch?" we'll ask "do you want a sandwich for lunch or a hot dog?"  Once we started giving her lots of choices throughout the day she has been very well behaved.  She just needed to feel like she had some control.

Speaking of hot dogs, today I asked her "do you want to eat it big or do you want me to cut it?"  She said "can you cut it into semi-circles?"  hahaha!  She cracks me up!

In nursery she is now the oldest, by several months.  All her friends are in sun beams.  I feel bad for the leaders and sometimes for Scarlett.  Jake often will stay and help out.  During music time instead of singing the songs she will sing the rainbow song loudly. the. whole. time.  They don't know the rainbow song and can't sing along.  But then when she gets home she will sing all the nursery songs.  Little stinker!

I hate peeling oranges.  In fact, that's the only reason why I don't give them to her.  Then at Laura's one day I noticed that Scarlett can peel a little cutie all by herself!  So now she eats one every day.  She often will share a few slices with me.  Win win!!!

Last Sunday our ward choir was singing and the sopranos were belting out the chorus.  All of the sudden Scarlett started copying them.  Loudly!  Oh my goodness!  As I dove over to cover her mouth I had to use all my self control to keep from totally busting out laughing.  

Last random story: Jake and I just switched to T-Mobile.  They have a deal right now where they will pay your cancellation fee and Jake made a spreadsheet to convince me that it makes a lot more sense then our current plan at Verizon.  Plus we got the Nexus 5 phones (amazing!) and the LG rep was there.  He hooked us up with lots of swag and even asked for our picture with our phones.  Anyways, we were waiting in line for a LONG time.  Finally the girls and I went and sat on the couch while Jake waited in line.  There was a cute blond girl working with lots of eye makeup on.  Scarlett told me "she's pretty".  So I told Scarlett that the lady would love to hear that and that was a very nice thing to say.  So Scarlett went over to her and said "you are pretty" then ran back to me.  The girl was all smiles after that!