More potty training...

[mommydama]

Luci has it ALL figured out. Second success of the day, mommy gives a big hug, little cheer, and hands out some M&Ms. Luci starts eating her candy, runs back to the little potty, sits down and produces a few drops. Demands more candy. As soon as the candy is gone, she runs back to the potty and, ta-da!, she does it again and demands her candy. Yeah. She has it all figured out.

Neither of the other girls tried this one, or they didn't figure it out, so I'm not sure how to handle it. I guess she'll be eating a lot of M&Ms for the next few days, until I'm sure she understands what to do. And has been given enough incentive to do it. She is quite proud of herself.

Comments

[mommydama.livejournal.com]

Well, I started the candy incentive with Mari because she really didn't have a good handle on English yet when Brad insisted we potty train her (don't let me go there!) And she has always needed clear cut rewards and consequences for EVERYTHING! Two years in an orphanage stifled a bit of her natural desire to please I think. She needs a LOT of incentive. She is better now, with a much stronger desire to please us and loves to be praised, but for a long time I didn't think she cared at all and she certainly didn't change her behavior based on my praise and affection. She despised me at the time.

Then I did it with Zoe, 'cause it worked with Mari. But Zoe is naturally compliant and probably would have done it without them. She just loves for you to notice that she did something!

Luci probably shouldn't have had them at all based on her personality. I caved yesterday when we hadn't had a success all day and I'd cleaned up WAY too much pee. I said "If you go in the potty next time, I'll give you an M&M!" So then I had to follow through, and of course, she expects it now. My bad. Oh well. I make these mistakes every day...almost every minute. I'll work us through this one too...