Potty Training: Complete?

This picture has nothing to do with potty training, of course, but I realized I never posted it, and it's cute. Kate is with her Aunt Crystal's dog, Sabrina. This was from a couple months ago.

Andrew thinks I'm a little premature in declaring Kate potty trained (and you will probably agree with him after reading this), but I'm saying it anyway (we've only been doing it since Monday...). She's only had one peeing accident in the last three days. The poo is a different story. She did finally go poo in the potty yesterday, but it came with much drama...or trauma, I guess I should say. Once she was done, she yelled for me (I was trying to give her some privacy), and she screamed her head off--a kind of terrified sort of scream. She just wanted off that potty and away from the poo. My celebrating was completely ignored and she didn't even acknowledge M&M's until she was a safe distance away. She's had similar reactions seeing the poo in her panties, and tonight in the tub. It's like she never realized what was in her diaper all these years.

You all may remember my last try at potty training her, which did not go well. I couldn't even think about potty training again for a year (I just realized it was almost exactly a year ago that I tried), even though she probably could have done it a few months ago. Her friends and cousins are all potty trained, and that got her more interested.

But still, most of the time it is a pain to get her on the potty. It only happens when I tell her she will get chocolate (and lately not even then). (Next week's challenge will be to wean her off the chocolate.) She holds it and doesn't go for hours until she comes skidding into the bathroom crying that she needs to go. Her pull-ups have been bone dry the last two nights, so she is in her panties for the first time tonight. We'll see how that goes...

I know you are all so curious about her potty training, but it has really been a great time for me--I feel so free! It's really more effort to help her go potty than it was to change her diaper every few hours, but it will save us some money every month which will be fabulous. And she won't be the only Sunbeam come January who's still wearing diapers.

Kate says the funniest things lately. When I was praising her for being "potty trained," her reply was, "Yes! I'm a potty train!" Ha ha. :) And when we tell her what a big girl she is, she sometimes agrees proudly, but other times insists, "No, I'm a little girl." All this potty training business makes me feel like she is all grown up--next milestone: high school graduation! It's nice to know that she's not in too big of a hurry to grow up either.