Dear Sis,

William is no stranger to the potty. We have been setting him on the big potty, with a training seat, since he was 15 months. When bursts of motivation would arrive, he would be eager to use the potty until he had a mishap. Not getting out of his clothes on time, falling off the stool, etc. Our process was much too complicated for him. So I finally gave into a training potty! During our Iowa visit we saw cousin Ronan’s training potty that looked just like a real potty. William is all for little versions of the real thing!

Our old motivation tool… M&Ms also needed a refresh. Now William gets to pick any treat out of his candy basket and puts a sticker on his helping mommy/potty training chart. We have been 5 stickers shy of a new toy for some weeks now, but yesterday William filled the chart by nap time. I promised him he could pick his new toy after nap. 

He picked a toy house. Nearly every place we visited on our road trip had a toy house and he really enjoyed them:) I was hoping he would pick one of the other three options so I wouldn’t have to brave Ikea, but alas, no such luck.

We loaded our rarely used stroller into the car because it was the only way I could imagine surviving an Ikea shopping trip without a second adult:) Things unfolded much better than anticipated! We used family parking, so we didn’t have to walk the enormous lot, we used the short cut signs and advice of employees to cut through whole sections of the store, and we stopped for dinner at the cafeteria, so no one would get too hungry. Ikea has been redeemed in my mind. It is possible to get through it in a hour, with a toddler and a meal stop!

We built it as soon as we got home and William played with it until bath time:)

Papa Carmin got William hooked on bubble baths during our road trip:)

Love,

b