Preparing for Kindergarten

The teacher asked her young pupils gathered for the first time in their classroom..."Who is excited to start Kindergarten this year?"

There was one loud, jubilant response, "ME! I am!"

Yes, it came from our little Adria. She is counting down the days until Tuesday, September 2 when she officially starts Kindergarten. Adria has her school uniforms, her new Frozen backpack, and all her school supplies. She is ready!

On Wednesday night we attended the Woodbridge Open House with most of her soon to be classmates. Children and parents were able to meet the 2 teachers for this Class of 2027...and learn what to expect for the coming school year.

Mrs. Ramey and Mrs. Lineweaver introduce themselves to their new Kindergarten class
at the Woodbridge Open House on Wednesday.

Adria sits at one of the 3 tables in her classroom, where she will
be one of 18 kindergarten students.

She is in a classroom with co-teachers; having 2 teachers works best
in this class where there are a few children who require extra special care.

While the teachers reviewed the schedule, policies and procedures on
the powerpoint, the children colored a school bus picture.

So many things to learn this year!

Johanna checks out big sister's classroom

Grandma helps Adria fill out questions about her favorite things.

However, the Open House was not Adria's first time meeting her Kindergarten teachers. She and Mommy had stopped by the school for a special visit on Monday afternoon, when she had the privilege of being the first student to see her classroom and meet her teachers.

As we prepare to embark on this new adventure - Full Day Kindergarten in the local Public School - it was necessary to create a plan for our Adria with the school nurse and her teachers.

I am extremely thankful that she has the health and intelligence to learn in a "typical" classroom environment, as that is sometimes not the case for children with spina bifida. However, she will require some attention and provisions that are not so "typical."

Fortunately, her school is literally just a block from where I work, so I have that peace that I could be available on short notice when needed. The other great aspect is that they will provide the services Adria needs to perform well in school.

I was glad to meet Nurse Dawn, who just started at the Early Childhood Education Center this year, but has years of experience with home care for special needs children and specifically with catheterization. That has been a concern for me over the summer...Will the school nurse be comfortable and capable of taking care of Adria?

Though I will be close by at work, I would not be able to do it every time it's needed. And I have learned over the years that not all nurses have experience or a comfort level with cathing.

(To learn more about what it means to Catheterize Adria, please read this post - LEARNING TO CATHETERIZE A TODDLER GIRL.)

The Plan for Adria

When Adria first met the nurse, she acted shy. But as I started to share with Dawn about Adria's spina bifida and what to be aware of at school, my little girl piped in..."Yeah, I was born with a bubble on my back!" It made me chuckle, but also get a bit emotional.

If you don't know about the spina bifida "bubble," read WHAT EXACTLY IS SPINA BIFIDA.

As I started talking with the nurse, it became clear that we really should involve Adria's teachers in the conversation at the same time. The nurse called her classroom and soon Adria was meeting two attractive women in their late 20s who would be co-teaching her class.

We discussed the following for Adria:

• Catheterization Plan: She typically needs her bladder emptied every four hours. Mommy would take care of it before we leave the house at 8:30 a.m. Adria's teacher will bring her to the nurse's office right before lunch at 12:30 p.m. for Nurse Dawn to catheterize her and ideally that will be all she needs until school is out at 3:55 p.m. (It's a long day!) 
• Emergency Cath Plan: However, if Adria starts to feel pain in her stomach, she may require cathing at other times of the day. We talked to Adria about just asking her teachers to come see Ms. Dawn when she feels like she has "Ouchies."
• Bowel Issues: Adria does not have bowel control, so if they started smelling something stinky, she should come to the nurse then too and have her diaper/pull-up changed.
• Leg Braces/DAFOs: Adria needs to wear her leg braces at all times at school, as she has limited sensation in her feet and weak ankles and we want to avoid injury.
• Walking and Steps: Adria is very mobile and walks well, however she may go slower and tire faster when walking long distances. She can walk up and down steps, but it takes a little longer for her.
• Spina Bifida scar: I showed them the markings on Adria's lower back where her surgery scar and reddish skin remain evidence of the "bubble" she had at birth. This way they would not be surprised if they saw it and wondered if she was okay.
• Heat Exhaustion: Due to wearing long socks and leg braces, Adria can overheat quickly when playing outside on a hot day. Plus, overheating is one of the side effects of a medication she takes.
• Medicine: Adria has several daily medications, but only one she needs to take in the middle of the day. The nurse can give her that before the 12:30 cathing.
• Drinking Water: It is critical for Adria to drink a good amount of water during the day. This helps reduce the risk of UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) and prevent bladder pain.
• Physical Therapy: She should be scheduled to have weekly physical therapy sessions during school hours that we will need to plan around.

I talked for a while about all these things. Then I paused and looked at her teachers and nurse and asked, "I'm sorry, is this overwhelming? There's just a lot to be aware of."

Suddenly, in speaking those words I felt overwhelmed. Is this really going to work? Sending our daughter to kindergarten, where she'll be in the care of other people all day with hundreds of other kids running around?

The tears began to fall. I was annoyed. Why can't I keep it together? 

But the women in the room with me were understanding and reassured me that it was no problem, and they were excited to have Adria in school. A moment later, one of Adria's pre-school teachers from last year walked in.

Adria squealed in delight and ran to give her a hug. She loved pre-school, and I know she'll love kindergarten. We can do this!

The teachers then gave us a personal tour of what would be Adria's classroom, which is nice and big, and we learned that one of Adria's closest friends from pre-school would be in her class. That made both of us happy!

Adria poses at the Open House with three of her best buddies from pre-school last year
and the boy on the left is her second cousin. They will all be in Kindergarten
at her school, and the little girl on the left will be in Adria's class! Those two
were physical therapy partners and close friends last year. 

It put my heart at mind and ease to see the kindness and care of her teachers and Adria's excitement. The only trouble was trying to get Adria to leave the classroom...she was rather stubborn.

Johanna tries out the bed where Adria will be cathed at school.

But we still had to go back to the nurse and demonstrate our system for catheterizing Adria. Again, I was glad to see that there are good provisions for a private place to take care of Adria. Nurse Dawn had even rearranged her office so there is a small bed where a curtain can be pulled around it for
privacy.

Adrian and my mom talk to Dawn, the school nurse, on Wed.

When we returned on Wednesday for the Open House, I introduced my husband to the nurse and my mom was with us too. Mom ran up to Nurse Dawn and gave her a big hug...apparently my mom knows her from years ago in Girl Scouts! That added another level of peace to the situation.

Though it makes us somewhat nervous to be sending Adria off to school, we trust that she is in good hands and see God's provision all around us. Fortunately, Adria has no fear at all about it. She's so ready!

Her teachers even passed a microphone around the class at Wednesday's Open House and asked the students to say their name and favorite thing to do. Adria was the first to go and happy to announce that she likes "Going to Grandma's house and playing dress up!"  My mom liked that response :)

It's hard to believe the time has come, but now I think we are ready to send our baby girl to Kindergarten. Adria is more ready than any of us!

Running for Adria

The sound of the alarm came too early last Sunday morning. It was still dark outside, and I was tempted to roll over and ignore it. But I had plans that morning. Plans to run.

I rolled out of bed, gathered my hair in a pony-tail, pulled on my purple Nike spandex capris, and grabbed a banana, energy bar, water, and gatorade. Time to hit the road. Oh wait, I need my sneakers.

The house was quiet as I left to get in the car and head toward the beach.

It's been a while since I've been driving down the road just after 5 a.m. (how do people do that every day?) There was just a hint of color peaking above the trees.

As I munched on my energy bar, I soon began to enjoy the stillness and beauty of Delaware at this hour on my 40 minute ride East.

• The gentle morning mist that hovered just above the fields of soy beans 
• The endless acres of corn stalks soaking up the morning dew
• The farmhouses in the country and the hushed historic homes lining the streets of small towns

The landscape took on an almost romantic appearance as the sky became more pink and filled with light as I traveled toward the ocean. When I see the beauty in creation like this, it reminds me that God is putting on a special show for us each and every morning.

My peaceful ride ended abruptly, as I made a necessary stop at a Wawa gas station that was already filled with people by 6 a.m. that weekend morning...tourists.

Minutes later, I was stretching and ready to meet up with a running group. I had not run with this group in years, but two of the six runners were my coaches/support team from when I trained for my first and only full marathon (26.2 miles) in 2007. They are all training for full marathons, but I'm going to stick with the half marathon this time...running 13.1 miles is much more manageable! There's something about running 26 miles that makes you feel like you just might die...and yet it's rather rewarding.

By the time they came jogging toward me, they had already put in 6 miles and were planning to run 16. I've been running a lot more often this year, but the most I've done at once is just over 5 miles, so my goal was to run 8 to 10 miles on that Sunday morning (just over a week ago).

It was great to see coach Dan, who is really the one that guided me and several other women through training for our first marathon. He's over 60 years old and still covers many miles on the road every week, and I think he runs at least 1 or 2 marathons every year!

After some quick introductions during their Gatorade stop, we were running. We ran through impressive housing developments that are rapidly growing, a heavily wooded trail, briefly along a busy road, and eventually down to the bustling boardwalk with the sun shining above the ocean beside us. Mile after mile we ran, taking some walk breaks and drink breaks. We weren't trying to break any records for speed, we were just covering the miles. Finally, around 9 a.m. we were sweaty and tired, but I had run 10 miles that morning. Woohoo! I felt surprisingly good for not having run that kind of distance in more than two years. But then, the others had run 16 miles that day. Much more impressive.

About 4 miles into my 10 mile run last Sunday...The rest of our group ran 16 miles that day!

We ran past soy bean fields and a dairy farm...

And watched the sun rising above the Atlantic Ocean as we ran our final few miles along the Rehoboth boardwalk. 

It helps so much on those long runs to have people with you. To keep each other motivated and keep going.

The only down side of my early morning Sunday run was that I didn't get home until 10 a.m., which left very little time before I had to be to work at 11 a.m. Thank you, Daddy, for enduring a long day for me!

The last time I ran more than 10 miles was in May 2012 when I completed the Indy 500 Mini-Marathon with over 30,000 other participants running through the streets of Indianapolis and the famous race track - it's the nation's largest half-marathon!

Since then, I've wanted to do another big race, but a lot has happened - not the least of which was moving twice. Now that life is settling into more of a steady rhythm, I decided it's time to run again. Not just 5K runs, but the more serious stuff. And I found the perfect race to run.

The national Spina Bifida Association has an athletic program called Team Spina Bifida that encourages people to participate in endurance events to RAISE FUNDS and AWARENESS for spina bifida. For very obvious reasons, this struck a cord with me and I became excited about the opportunity to run a half-marathon again AND do it for my little girl! Adria's spina bifida limits the extent that she can run, but she has enjoyed watching me participate in a few 5K races. She's even asked to run along with me.

Running for our little Adria!

My hope and prayer is that someday, she and I will run a race together. We don't need to race to win, we can run to finish strong!

I have joined Team Spina Bifida and will be running the Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon in Savannah, Georgia on November 8, 2014.

The training is underway, and I have committed to raise at least $500 for the Spina Bifida Association. We will be covering our own travel and accamodation expenses, so that the majority of these funds go directly to the association. Plus, we'll make a little family vacation out of it!

So, as the world of social media is currently flooded with the #IceBucketChallenge for ALS, if you find that you don't want to dump ice water on your head and would like to donate to a good cause - please consider donating to my fundraiser for Team Spina Bifida!

You can visit my personal page to make a Donation - www.teamspinabifida.org/savannah/adria

Thank you in advance for your support!

Learning to Catheterize a Toddler Girl

It's 2:45 a.m.

A knock sounds on our bedroom door followed by a pained little voice, "Ouchy, Mommy, Ouchy. Ouchy!"

It's a familiar sound that has been in the middle of the night far too often lately, but I usually hear it over the baby monitor. I pop awake and suddenly feel guilty as I realize I forgot to turn on the monitor last night.

Though our girls are almost 6 years old and 2 1/2, we still use a baby monitor to listen to them every night. We listen primarily for a moan or that cry of "Ouchy" from our oldest daughter Adria.

It means that her bladder is full and she needs to empty it, but unlike most people, Adria does not have the ability to push urine out of her body.

Instead, she feels a painful build up of pressure that can lead her to the point of screaming and scratching at her lower abdomen if not "taken care of" quickly. The way we take care of her is by Intermittent Catheterization (also known as CIC - clean intermittent catheterization). This is fairly common in children born with myelomeningocele spina bifida, since the lower spinal cord carries the nerves that control bowel and bladder function. For Adria, some of these nerves in the lower spine never formed properly.

Though she has many unique challenges,
Adria remains a happy little girl enjoying life and rides at Funland!

Today, I wanted to share with you more about Catheterization because for many people it's a mysterious thing, but for us it's become as normal as changing a baby's diaper.

Years before we Learned to Potty-Train a Toddler Girl, as I shared earlier this month, we learned to catheterize a toddler girl. It's completely different, frightening and minorly horrifying at first, but we did learn and get used to it.

I hope you will take time to read and learn more about this sensitive and very personal topic. It's not exactly easy to write about and tasteful, blog-worthy graphics are hard to come by (try a Google search for female catheterization...)

The Start of Adria's Catheterization Program

We first started Adria on a regular catheterization program just after her 2nd birthday in fall 2010. Early that year we had made the major move to Indianapolis, and all that summer our sweet baby was plagued with repeated UTIs (urinary tract infection). She would become fevered and sluggish and her urine had a foul odor. I felt like a horrible mom having it happen so often.

Fortunately, we were in good hands to get support. Riley Hospital for Children is a nationally ranked medical center in the heart of the IUPUI campus (Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis), with a pediatric urology program that ranks #2 in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.

During our two year stay in Indiana, we lived just 20 min. from this hospital and less than 10 minutes from a southern campus where we could meet with Dr. Martin Kaefer. He is the backbone behind the strong reputation of this program, and the doctor who first recommended a regular catheterization program for Adria. We felt fortunate to have his expertise to help us through this big adjustment.

He conducted a test that Adria still receives at least once a year called a Urodynamics Study. She lies on a hospital bed, while they insert a catheter into her urethra and use it to insert fluid in order to test her bladder pressure. She handled it surprisingly well, but the result showed high pressure in her bladder and that she was not emptying well. Apparently, her wet diapers were just the overflow urine coming out and not her truly peeing like normal.

Now that we've had a little girl who does pee and has filled many diapers to overflowing, the difference between our two girls is very obvious in that aspect.

When Dr. Kaefer recommended that we start catheterizing, he said it was important because without it there was a strong likelihood that Adria would require bladder enlargement surgery by age 7 or 8. Thankfully, the program seems to be working because she had a Urodynamics study again in June and her bladder looked good.

But let me tell you, it's no joke to go to a doctor appointment expecting to get another prescription for an antibiotic and instead leave with bags full of supplies that we would need for intermittent catheterizing of our toddler. Every fours should work, he said. We should not need to at night.

We had been shown how to catheterize her as a newborn, but they said we may not need to, so it's not something we were comfortable doing. They gave us some advice, but honestly we just had to go home and figure it out.

We would have to insert this narrow tube into our two year old's "pee-pee", so that her urine could come out...

The Learning Process

To be honest, the catheterizing was terrible at first.

The catheter looks like a narrow tube about 8-10 inches long with a rounded tip that has holes in it and a rubber area on the other end to hold it with. It MUST be clean, in fact most doctors recommend just one use and then toss it.

Adria was very agitated by the process at first. She would cry and act very uncomfortable, which made me cry and be very uncomfortable...

We put a lubrication gel on the catheter before inserting it and allowing the urine to empty into a cup or just her diaper. As we continued to struggle with this, a medical company that supplies catheters introduced us to a fairly new product at the time - Hydrophilic Catheters. (To learn more Click HERE.)

These catheters were prelubricated with a water packet. For us and our little Girl, these catheters made all the difference! We've used many different styles over the last four years, but they are always Hydrophilic catheters.

How to Catheterize a Girl

Four years later, we are experts at catheterizing our daughter and may even begin teaching her to do it herself soon. (I'm totally nervous about that too...)

During the day, we try to not wait for her to have "Ouchies" before we catheterize her. We have a schedule to catheterize her generally four times a day around 8 a.m., 12 noon, 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Over the past month, Adria has started to require a fifth catheterization sometime in the night or very early morning almost every night. We have talked with her urologist about this and are adjusting some medications to see if that helps.

So here's what happens every time we catheterize our little girl:

1. Wash our hands with warm, soapy water and/or put on gloves from her catheter kit.
2. Lie her on changing table (or bed if needed) and open her diaper. 

   

   Adria on her changing table - it's really a computer desk but works well for us.

3. Use a baby wipe to clean her private area.
4. Open the SpeediCath packet and remove catheter, being sure to only touch the colored rubber end and not allow the tube to touch ANYTHING else. 
   
   
   

   

   SpeediCath - our favorite type of catheter 

5. Cover the rubber end with a small bag for collecting the urine.
6. Carefully insert the catheter into her urethra (hopefully, we all know that this is the first of a female's three holes...just making sure) and push several inches in to reach her bladder. 

   

   A little Health class on the female urinary system.

7. Immediately urine flows through the catheter into the collection bag.
8. Typically, about 200 ml of urine empties into the bag before it stops a few minutes later.

   

   Yep...that's a bag of pee... forgive me

9. Pull out catheter and trash all supplies.
10. Put a new diaper/Pull-up on Adria and she's ready to go!

This is our every day, four or five times a day experience with our princess. Once you get used to it, it's not so bad and I can even do it with low light at night, so I don't wake up her little sister.

However, it is not pleasant to need to collect our child's urine. It just is what's necessary. And that is okay. She's more than worth it.

Lately, it's been a little tough on Adria as she wants to wear pretty panties like her little 2 year old sister now does. Unfortunately, we are still having pretty serious issues with her bowel that require she still wear diapers. We are actively pursuing options to improve that.

I hope that this has been helpful and informative...and not too weird. Just realize that sometimes in life, you end up doing things you never even knew about or conceived that you would be able to do. We have no medical training or expertise. We are simply parents of a daughter that needs us to be experts on her needs.

Getting Wheels and Tests

Two things we learned about our daughter today:

1. She can sit alone with a health professional in the same room for more than 4 hours and still enjoy herself.
2. She can hop onto a wheelchair for the first time and navigate it around like a pro.

Adria amazed us with both of these accomplishments.

Today was a long day that started with us leaving our home just after 6 a.m. to drop Johanna off with Granny then travel the 1.5+ hours in rush hour traffic to A.I. duPont Hospital in Wilmington.

A peak at the upcoming expansion of AI duPont Hospital for Children.

Our visit was unlike any that we've had before at the hospital. To be honest, we weren't really sure what to expect.

Adria was to receive a Neuropsychology Test... as if we knew what that was.

Adria gets seated in the chair where she would spend 4+ hours today playing games and
answering questions related to IQ, reading skills, math and comprehension

We soon found out. While Adria went into one room to "play games" a.k.a. get tested, Adrian and I went into another room to talk with a doctor. She had a kind-hearted nature and explained that these tests look at learning and behavior in children with potential brain development issues. Ironically, she primarily works with children who have seizures and/or spina bifida.

The tests are generally performed during three critical times in a child's development:

1. Pre-Kindergarten
2. 4th or 5th Grade
3. Entering High School

The time with this new doctor was very informative as she gave us insight on what we might expect with Adria's development over her school years and how children in the spina bifida "population" tend to perform in certain areas.

For instance, these children tend to keep their IQ and intellect level growing throughout life, but as school becomes more demanding they often struggle with reading comprehension, attention processing, and abstract reasoning. (Of course, lots of kids can struggle with those!)

Adria leans in to give Mommy a kiss during a break in her testing.

We found it somewhat amusing that the doctor cautioned us to be aware that Adria's sweet, out-going personality may cause teachers to assume that she's performing well, when in fact she might be struggling educationally. Adria is a very bright girl, as they found out during the testing, but we still need to be aware of possible challenge areas.

Our conversation covered a variety of topics, including a review of our family's history over the past few years and areas of possible stress for Adria. As we brought to light some of those difficult times, including Adrian's struggle with seizures and the negative impact of his medications, it was hard to keep cool.

Now that life is coming into a better balance for us, we don't dwell on the harder times. But when we relive them through a conversation with an understanding and sympathetic listener, it feels like it all happened just yesterday... That is not all bad, as there is healing in acknowledging the struggle and recognizing the road to recovery.

After wiping a few tears away and finishing the conversation, Adrian and I were handed a series of questionaires to answer. It felt like we were taking the SAT of parenting as we answered hundreds of questions about Adria and her development. 

An example of one of the 7 forms we had to fill out - Don't you think it looks like the SAT?

Finally, after four long hours with a short lunch break in between, Adria completed her testing and we finished filling out our forms.

Now for the Wheelchair Clinic:

At our recent visit with Adria's orthopaedic doctors, they recommended that it's time for her to get fitted for a wheelchair. At first I almost balked at the idea...she's a great "ambulator" as they say. She walks well with her leg braces and fairly well without them! She's totally fine. Right?

Mostly. We still use a double stroller anywhere that we need to cover long distances - the zoo, state fair, museums, boardwalk, amusement parks, etc. She walks exceptionally well, considering her spina bifida diagnosis, but she still tires much faster than other children her age.

We do not want her to become dependent on a wheelchair, but for emergency purposes and unique situations like those above, it could be very beneficial for her and us.

When we first entered the clinic, and they pulled out a chair for her to try, she was not impressed.

However, after we gave the teddy bear a spin, she wanted a turn. Within minutes she was expertly pushing the wheels and rolling down the hallway! She even figured out how to turn quickly. We were rather impressed and quickly realized how this could be helpful at times.

Adria's "Chicky" was the first one to try out a wheelchair (Barbie sized)

I thought this wheelchair bicycle looked pretty fun!

Daddy considers the first wheelchair option...not loving it.

This one looks much better. Teddy Bear gets the first ride.

Soon, Adria warms up to the idea and tries it along with them.

Hmmm, this isn't so bad.

Watch her go! Once she started, she didn't want to stop.

So we put in an order for a wheelchair...

There are tons of details that go along with the ordering process, but the most important was the COLOR. Adria struggled between Fuschia and Candy Purple, but in the end...Surprise, Fuschia won!

She had to get measured for the proper fit

A Fuchsia wheelchair is on the way...

Finally our interesting day at the hospital was over around 4 p.m. - many hours after our 8:30 a.m. arrival.

As we pulled away in the pouring rain and joined the masses in their evening commute home, my main thought was... boy am I glad I don't have to deal with this traffic everyday anymore! (For those who don't know, I worked in Wilmington for 3 years back in the day.)

We'll be back again in a few weeks to review Adria's test results and then again in a couple months to pick up her new set of wheels!

Learning to Potty-Train a Toddler Girl

We have done it, Folks! For the first time, we have successfully potty trained a child.

This is exciting, big news for us! Johanna is officially out of diapers and Pull-Ups! That is, when she's not sleeping.

She will turn three in December, and it's been about a month now that she's been wearing her big girl panties with very few accidents. Woohoo! Can you tell we're excited?

However, as I was writing this post she decided to get on our bed and have an accident (on Daddy's side)...go figure.

Our happily potty-trained little Johanna at 2 years 8 months old.

To be honest, this part of parenting intimidated me. Really, I should have considered it a breeze when compared to learning to catheterize a toddler girl, because that is what was and is required with Johanna's big sister Adria.

But I imagine most parents are apprehensive of potty training the first time around. It can be a daunting task that takes time, consistency and discipline. We first introduced Johanna to the potty more than a year ago, but we didn't really get serious about it until early this Spring. It seemed to make more sense to try harder once warm weather got here, so that she could spend more time outside...and the accidents would be left outside!

There is a great deal of expert advice on how to potty train, and I've even had some friends who were able to do it in just a day or two, but our approach proved to be more the "slow and steady wins the race" style.

In case you are preparing to or attempting to Potty Train your toddler, here are some tips from our success story:

1. Buy a simple, pretty Potty
One day at Wal-Mart, we stood there staring at a dozen options for toddler toilets. We ended up with a simple pink one that has a lid and doubles as a stool. It's nothing fancy, but it does have a soft cushion that separates from the bowl for easier cleaning. For some reason, this cushion top now has teeth marks in it...not sure why it looked chewable to Johanna, but I sure hope it was clean when she did that! I suppose that would be a drawback to this particular potty...

The Pink Potty ready for use!

Put the lid down and Presto! you've got a stool for hand washing

And yeah...these are the bite marks. Don't ask, I have no idea.

2. Let her pick out fabulous Panties
For many little girls, an interest in fashion and being "pretty" develops at a rather young age. Johanna is no exception. She loves wearing heals and dresses, so it only makes sense to let her pick panties that she's excited to wear before embarking on this potty training adventure. I let her look at various patterns and characters in the store, and she shrieked most about the Tinkerbell package of panties. Fairies it is.

These Tinkerbell panties are the real reason she's potty-trained.
She can't wait to wear them!

3. Watch for the Signs
We started putting her on the potty by looking for the signs. She would run away to another room and be too quiet. Whenever she had to poo, she would lean over something on her belly, so we would try to whisk her up and onto the potty. Of course, she did not always appreciate her private moment being interrupted. Nor did she like sitting up versus her leaning over approach.

Possibly the face of a child ready to do some damage...

4. Get Super Excited with her Success!
If we were able to catch her in time and get her to go on the potty, it was celebration time! Mommy even made up a little sing-song chant. It's super clever...."Yeah, Johanna, she pee-peed on the potty!" Genius...Big sister would often join in and we'd sing it several times. Now, Jo-Jo likes to sing it too. And she likes to help as we go through the not-so-pleasant task of dumping her full potty bucket into the adult toilet. Naturally, she prefers to be the one to flush it!

5. Reward the Trickle
The sound of your toddler's trickle is a blessed thing to a parent. After the potty is empty and the hands are washed, it's time for a reward. We had a huge bag of Christmas M&Ms that had never been eaten, so we kept them in the linen closet and gave her one or two after going on the potty. As she became more regular with going, we did not need to give her candy every time, but it was a great motivation to get things going!

6. Don't nag about when she has to Go
Some of the best advice we received when we were first getting serious came from Jo-Jo's pediatrician. She said to let her have a few accidents in panties and have her help clean up the mess. Encourage her to tell you next time she needs to go, but don't ask her every five minutes "Do you need to go potty?" We soon learned that when and if Johanna said, "Potty!" we had approximately 3.5 seconds to get her on one. We also learned that she has a large bladder, but if over two hours passed and she hadn't said anything, we would go ahead sit her on the Potty.

7. Try to remain calm when Accidents happen
Getting angry or frustrated when there is a giant puddle on your living room floor is only natural. We know this! The nasty clean up of the child and house is labor intensive and can evoke strong emotion. But yelling at a toddler for doing what she's been doing (peeing wherever and whenever) for the last two years is not the way to convince her that potty time is a great thing.

8. When you are ready to start, be Consistent
Like I said, we introduced potty time a while back, but it wasn't until spring that WE were ready to commit and be consistent. If Daddy and I were serious, the Pull-ups had to stay in the drawer and the panties had to go on for her to learn. And we had to pay attention to how much she drank and how often her body needed to Go.

Mommy and her girls

Now, our little girl refuses to wear a diaper during the day. She usually wakes up in the morning complaining about her full diaper and excitedly wants to put on her "Tinkerbells." It's a good feeling to have successfully navigated this hurdle of parenting. Although it does make going out in public more interesting...beware of public restrooms and tiny bums!

P.S. I hope you don't mind all the Potty Talk!