Potty Training: The Big Day

View more of the series here --> Day One: Intro Day Two: The Prep




Today we're going to get into the nitty gritty. It's all about day one of potty training and everything you need to know to get both you and your little one through the day alive. Be prepared for stress, accidents, tears, but a lot of fun, learning and growing.


Try and start the potty training as soon as possible. I let Alea eat her breakfast in her diaper and then changed her and put her in underwear. Next, I brought out her doll (you could use a stuffed animal or whatever you have on hand) and told her that we were going to potty train her dolly. I then had her give her doll her sippy cup and after a couple minutes I told Alea that her doll had to go potty & Alea played along right away. She immediately took her doll to her potty chair and we celebrated and gave her doll an M&M and a sticker after she "went potty."



Next, I told Alea that we should do the same for her and see if it makes her go potty. So I filled up her sippy cups-- one milk, one water, and one juice-- and instructed her to drink as much as she wanted so she could go pee-pee on the potty just like her doll did. Then, after you get them drinking away, set the timer on the microwave for about 15 minutes and as soon as the timer goes off let them know that it's time to use the potty.

If their trip to the potty is successful-- CELEBRATE! Tell them how proud of them you are, jump up and down, sing, shout hurray and of course give them their treat and sticker! This part is the most fun, for sure!

If their trip wasn't successful, no biggie. Set the timer again and try, try again!

Another trick to get them drinking as much fluids as possible and maximizing your chances to teach and learn, encourage them to eat salty snacks. Throw caution to the wind and forget about eating healthy for the day. Alea's favorite salty snack is potato chips so I let her have as many potato chips as she wanted that day-- as long as it kept her drinking.

I've told you what you should do to celebrate their successes, but what about the accidents? Do not, I repeat, do not make a big deal out of them. You may feel defeated and frustrated, but don't let them see that. Bring them to the site of the accident and tell them that pee-pee and poo-poo is yucky and we need to put it in the potty and reiterate where the potty is. Tell them that [insert character on their underwear's name here] doesn't like to be peed or pooped on, clean-up and move on. Continue to encourage salty snacks & liquids and proceed!

After continuously hearing me ask her if she needed to go to the potty or that it was time to sit on the potty, we hit a wall. I could tell Alea was getting frustrated and annoyed with me constantly nagging her, so I downloaded the free Pull-Ups iGo Potty app. This app allows you to set a timer and then the app "calls you" when it's time for your little one to go potty again. This completely turned our day around and made going to the potty a little more exciting. The other fun feature of the app is that it allows you to check whether or not your little one went and whenever they do have a successful trip to the potty they receive a virtual sticker and after so many stickers they get a game! Alea loved it and still asks if Patti the Potty is going to call her.



At the end of our first day of potty training with Alea she peed 15 times and pooped 3 times on the potty and had 5 accidents. Not too shabby! You might think she went a lot for one day, but keep in mind that a toddler's bladder is a lot smaller than ours and boy was she inhaling the fluids!



Thanks for continuing to read along with this fun little series. I'm enjoying sharing our experience with you. Tomorrow, we'll talk about our first trip out of the house, a trip to the doctor for a poorly scheduled 2 year check-up, and a 4 hour road trip just days into potty training! Yes, I agree... we were out of our minds!

If you have an questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I pinky promise I'll get back to you!