Odegaard Toddler Potty Trains

Odegaard Toddler Potty Trains

The Odegaard household was left stunned on Wednesday when Kalina Odegaard, 23 months, completed the waking-hours transition from diapers to underwear.

"Underwear is way better," the girl commented. "Let's go to Goose Park."

Daddy and Mommy Odegaard varied in mood from proud acceptance to wide-eyed, ecstatic, bubbly relief.

"I knew all along she'd do it," stated Daddy calmly.

"I can't believe she's potty trained!" trumpeted Mommy, with tears in her eyes, to anyone/thing with ears.

Mommy later mentioned that a week ago, potty training wasn't really even on the household's radar--except, possibly, Kalina's, as the toddler later admitted.

"I'd been considering giving up diapers for a while, but I didn't think Mommy was quite ready," Kalina explained.

"We were going to wait until Kalina was a little more ready," Mommy said in a separate conversation. She attributes the success almost exclusively to the young girl. "All I did was provide the underwear. Sure, I had a few helpful tricks up my sleeve, but Kalina caught on fast. She really took me by surprise."

When asked what motivated her to make the switch, Kalina listed a combination of detesting diaper changes, receiving marshmallows, and the fact that "Mommy, Daddy, and many other people I like wear underwear. Mine are pink."

Repeating several times during the interview, "I'm just so glad it's over," Mommy cited potty training as the thing she's dreaded almost as much as labor and delivery. "Fortunately, Kalina made this one rather easy for me," she smiled wearily.

The transition process wasn't all fun and games, though--at least not for Mommy, as she told reporters. "I think on Day 2 I came close to giving up just about every hour. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I'd have to coax Kalina back into a diaper, and I figured cleaning up accidents would actually be easier."

According to Kalina, though, the process was easy. "I even convinced both Mommy and Daddy to give me a marshmallow if I just 'tried' to use the toilet! However, I've noticed that they brush my teeth a bit more carefully in the evenings nowadays."

Going out has been a bit more of a challenge, but the girl has weathered it in stride.

"Thank goodness for bribes," Mommy said.

Another challenge came on Friday morning when Kalina spiked a 103-degree fever, and then threw up when Mommy tried to put her in a diaper since she was so sick and drowsy.

"There's no going back to diapers. Gross," said Kalina. "I think Mommy understands that now."

But potty training wasn't all that was going on in the Odegaard household this week. With all the at-home time and in between educational trips to the toilet, Kalina also mastered her alphabet.

"Have you ever heard the Alphabet Song? It's hilarious!" Kalina told the press, giggling for about five minutes after singing the first three notes.

At the end of the busy week, all family members report optimism about the future.

"We still have to work on using public restrooms, but, really, who wouldn't rather hold it?" Mommy said. "The big challenge is going to be our big family trip in three weeks. Fortunately, we have three weeks until then."

Kalina added, "Rumor has it, Mommy found cat underwear for me! Cats! On underwear!"

Resident Expert Mommy Odegaard offers her top three tips for potty training a child who's exactly like Kalina:

1. Motivate. Also called "bribing." While the best motivation is the child's own happiness in her accomplishment, marshmallows work in a pinch. If one particular motivation doesn't do the trick, ramp it up until you find one that does.

2. De-motivate. Our best success came when Kalina was dressed in underwear and clingy cotton pants. Turns out, they're quite uncomfortable when wet, providing the best de-motivation of all. Another thing--don't rush to change your child out of her wet clothes. First, clean up the accident on the floor together while your toddler walks around bowlegged, and then change into new underwear and another pair of clingy cotton pants. Remember that accidents are a good learning experience for both of you--your toddler learns that it's much better to use the toilet, and you learn your toddler's patterns and capabilities.

3. Communicate. First, teach the rules. 1. No potty or poop in underwear (your child learns that wearing underwear is a bit of a privilege) 2. Potty and poop go in the toilet. 3. Tell Mommy/Daddy before you need to go potty/poop (or, older kids may be able to head straight to the bathroom by themselves). Repeat these often and have your child repeat them. For accidents, use words like "Yuck, your pants are wet, now we have to go change," and "Too bad! We have to clean this up. If you'd gone in the toilet you'd be getting a treat right now!" Lavish praise for all success.

Photo: Toddler Kalina Odegaard proudly holds her catch of cats.

Odegaard family beach vacation 2010!

Lately, Kalina's been requesting:

1. to go over to Grandpa's house for hot dogs
2. ice cream
3. a cat party
4. to fly a kite

And we've been working our way down the list. (The cat party will be held around the time of her birthday. And yes, she came up with the idea all by herself.) And where better to fly a kite and eat ice cream than at the beach? So we went.

We followed the good deals to North Myrtle Beach and sprung for a suite so that Matt and I might actually be able to enjoy naptime (hah!) and bedtime in front of the cable TV (at our house, the TV only works if there's a DVD playing, and we kind of like it that way).

The drive down took all of five minutes. Spirits were high, Kalina was content to point out various colors of signs, and we introduced animal crackers to her, which she enjoyed playing with more than eating. Fine by me. Once we got to North Myrtle, the mini-golf courses were more than enough drive-by entertainment ("Look, Kalina, a dinosaur!" "Another dinosaur?" "Sure, we'll look for another dinosaur.").

The suite was perfect, as was our view. We quickly coated Kalina in sunscreen about 1/4 inch thick and dashed off to the beach.

Kalina greeted the ocean as if she were seeing an old friend. As Matt set up the umbrella, I got the fun privilege of holding Kalina back as she rushed toward every wave, as if to give the Atlantic a great big hug. Matt soon took over (the strength of the ocean and my excited little girl wore me out!) and I watched for dolphins, because how cool would it be if Kalina got to see dolphins? (She didn't.)

Towards suppertime, we made our way through the maze of pools, dipping into one or two just because we could, and ordered pizza to eat in the room after cleaning up a bit.

Of course, we couldn't resist heading back out for a pre-sunset walk (Even Kalina's vacation bedtime, which meant she could stay up to her regular bedtime even though she hadn't really napped, wouldn't allow us to actually watch the sky turn pink from anywhere but our balcony). Regretting not sticking the girl in swimsuit and swim diaper, we nevertheless let her splash in waves and "puddles" (the little tiny creeks and ponds that form up on the sand as the tide recedes) to her little heart's content.

And Kalina's little heart sure was content! She took to the beach at a run. Apparently, smooth sand and no roadblocks are irresistible to an active toddler. She stopped only to play in the water a bit or draw a continuous line in the sand with her foot as Matt had taught her. Meanwhile, Matt dug up mole crabs and chased minnows, and Kalina happily glanced at them as she hopped* by. He also was instrumental in keeping Kalina out of the ocean's depths.

When we could put off bedtime absolutely no longer, we all headed back to our room. We promised ourselves an encore first thing in the morning.

The next dawned a bit brighter than Kalina did: a string of bad naps (starting Wednesday of the week prior to our trip) was beginning to take it's toll. We headed back to the beach as soon as we could, and started off on a walk.

Poor Kalina. On this particular morning, she enjoyed the beach (and later, the pools), more from Mommy's or Daddy's arms than in person. I think I even caught her saying "naptime" once or twice by 9:00 a.m.

The bright spot was flying the kite on the beach, as I'd told Kalina she could all throughout the week before our trip. One small problem: the day was as calm as could be. Fortunately, the wind picked up a tiny bit by mid-morning--enough for the kite to become airborne as long as Matt, holding the string, kept running (I was happy to be the photographer). Kalina wanted to fly it herself, with absolutely no help, even for launching, but fortunately was able to compromise and hold it while Daddy ran with her in his arms. It worked well enough for her to be able to say "I flew a kite on the beach," although I think she thought the whole experience was rather anti-climatic and didn't really ask to do it again.

An hour spent back in the room watching Animal Planet did nothing to revive Kalina's spirits, and after one more jaunt out to the beach and a hasty lunch we put her down for a nap, waited a good 15 minutes for her to quiet down, and headed out to the balcony.

Half an hour or so later, when Matt popped his head back inside to check on the girl, he heard far too much chatter for our liking. My nose told me a diaper change was in order, and although Matt did his best to get Kalina back to sleep afterward (he's better at that than I am), it soon became clear that not only was our happy girl back, but there was no way she wanted a nap.

Happy vacation, Kalina! No nap for you. We promised each other up and down that we would put her down for a really, for real, no really, early bedtime and headed off to the local aquarium.

Still clinging a couple animal crackers we'd given her for the road, Kalina was fairly content to walk around to various tanks and help us spot stingrays and colorful fish. The missing nap(s) soon caught up with her, though, and it soon became obvious that she wasn't enjoying herself nearly as much as she would've if she had the sleep she needed (I should note here that Kalina certainly wasn't making up for lost sleep by sleeping in until, say, 7:00 or 7:30. That would just be ridiculous). Poor girl.

Fortunately for all of us, our wanderings led us to a tank with a long, windy tunnel through it that you go through via a flat conveyor belt thingy you stand on (it's hard to describe). And what did Kalina find swimming overhead? A shark. Lots of sharks. And a few other fish, and lobsters, too. She was ecstatic. Thrilled to have our happy girl back, we trekked through it at least 3 times. Kalina, for her part, made sure Lamby was able to spot the sharks, too.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was unfortunately not spent on the beach, as an impending thunderstorm sent us out for dinner and ice cream instead. After all, we'd promised the girl ice cream and didn't mind enjoying some ourselves. Despite the return of sunny, gorgeous skies at 6:30 that evening, we nevertheless forced ourselves to get Kalina ready for bed and have her in it at a decent time, instead of heading back out. We crossed our fingers for good sleep, and a happier toddler in the morning.

And she was! Our little sunshine dawned early, but without too many detrimental effects. We once again headed to the beach.

After we all played in puddles for a while, Matt dug up a few mole crabs (he can never resist), and soon Kalina was digging up a mole crab too, in the puddle Matt had put it in. As someone who doesn't want to get within poking distance of the creatures, I didn't quite know what to think when my sweet little girl held one up. She could even find it after it had burrowed into the sand. Should I be worried?

And then we made a sand fortress and some sand cats, and Kalina was absolutely thrilled. "Another cat!" she said, over and over. My cats got much more rudimentary as I struggled to keep up with demand. Fortunately, she never asked for another fortress, because it was pretty elaborate.

We'd hardly played in the pools at all during our stay, so with still more than an hour left before checkout, we dove in. Scared at first, Kalina allowed herself to be coaxed into the water by riding piggyback on Daddy's shoulders, and thought chasing Mommy around was the best thing ever.

Back at the room, we rushed to clean up and clear out. The vacation was over. So sad.

This was never more obvious than on the ride home, which took about two days and almost took longer. I convinced Kalina to go to sleep, but an ambulance woke her up after--you guessed it--45 minutes. We still had a long, long way to go.

At home, we were rewarded by the fact that Kalina's toys all seemed new to her and she was content to play nicely by herself while we unpacked and tried to forget about the drive.

We still talk about the trip fairly often, and look at pictures, usually to rounds of "again? Again?" Clearly, Kalina remembers her beach vacation fondly, as will we. Plus, we could check off "fly a kite" and "have ice cream." Missions accomplished.

*"Hopping" is Kalina's favorite form of travel, both for herself and any animals she sees, real or pretend. True hopping is a light gallop, and it's best executed by the hopper repeating "hop, hop, hop" in a high-pitched voice mostly to herself. However, hopping can also mean a run, a jump or big step up to a higher place or onto an object (like a step or a slide), or really any means of bodily conveyance from one place to another. It's just precious.

Photo 1: Kalina "flying" a kite, all by herself!
Photo 2: Odegaard family beach trip photo
Photo 3: Daddy and Kalina chasing seagulls. Because what else would you do with a seagull?
Photo 4: Kalina's cool line in the sand
Photo 5: Kalina's favorite thing to do nowadays is wrap up in towels. Kitchen towels are usually the best fit, but we made a beach towel work.
Photo 6: Kalina flying a kite with Daddy's help
Photo 7: At the aquarium. In my haste to get a cute picture of Lamby, I forgot to include the shark everyone's looking at.
Photo 8: You can't really see the mole crab, but Kalina dug it up and is holding it. Look how proud Daddy is.
Photo 9: Sand cat-sles and other creations

Potty Training: Somewhere within Round 2

Round 2 of Potty Training began after we returned from vacation and had unpacked and rested up a bit. It turns out, our vacation did nothing to either advance or halt potty training so we were, indeed, able to pick up where we left off.

Whereas last week, Kalina was more or less happy to sit on the toilet and impress us with her pottying prowess, at least until toward the end of the day, I realized after yesterday that she'd need a bit more motivation. What's more, she needed some de-motivation from simply using her underwear--accidents bothered her at first, but she soon got over it.

A timer did nothing to convince Kalina it was time to use the toilet, nor did the reminder of "you'll get a sticker!" We upgraded to mini marshmallows, and Kalina has been all sunshine since, except for the time she was frustrated because she couldn't use the toilet within 1 minute of having previously used it. I explained that drinking water would help her situation and after quite a tantrum, she settled down nicely with her sippy cup.

For de-motivation, we decided to put pants on Kalina over her underwear. Cotton pants. Pants that get soggy and yucky when she has an accident (they help keep the accident off the floor, too!). They were put to the test, and kind of work.

My problem now is figuring out how to get Kalina to tell me she needs to go instead of telling me she just went. She clearly understands the process, she just needs to put two and two together. Our conversations:

"Kalina, where does potty belong?"
"In the toilet!" (With a huge grin)
"Where does potty not belong?"
"In underwear." (Somberly, with a frown)
"What happens when we put potty in the toilet?"
"Treat!!!" (Can barely speak for dancing around jubilantly)
"And what happens when we put potty in underwear?"
"Wet." (A somber frown again)
"What do you do if you have to go potty?"
"Toilet!" Triumphantly

And yet, accidents still happen.

Also on the agenda: lengthening the amount of time between potty trips (she ranges from upwards of 2 hours to a mere 15 minutes), and venturing out of the house.

My other problem is that eventually, even marshmallows will get old. Will she be potty trained before she's receiving a pony on each trip to the bathroom?

I'm still not sure whether to keep slogging through this or not. How long is it supposed to take? Is she really, really ready?

Factors in our favor:
1. I think she's poop trained. And she's approached me (mostly by just looking up at me, rather distressed) for the last two days when she needs to poop. Yay, Kalina!
2. Marshmallows are working.
3. Accidents at least make her stop what she's doing for a minute.
4. She prefers underwear over diapers.
5. She's very proud when she does go potty.

Factors against us:
1. She generally won't tell us when she needs to go potty.
2. She sometimes can hold it for a long time, sometimes not.
3. She doesn't strive for independence. Really at all, in almost anything except pulling our big wagon up hills.

Would you keep going?

Still to come: The Odegaard Beach Vacation post

Potty Training: Round 1

The ironic part about the fact that I'm writing this post at this time, when Kalina is not yet 2 years old, is that I'm actually in no real hurry to potty train Kalina.

"But you have a new baby on the way! Shouldn't you be frantic? Besides, don't you want to escape your nasty cloth diapers that I always thought were a crazy idea?" you say.

Well, sure, I want Kalina to be potty trained someday. And as some of my mommy friends have encountered potty training success even at this tender age I've occasionally wondered if they might be onto something. I've noticed, by the way, that no matter how early your child does something, there's always some kid who can do it sooner. And yes, it is a race. Would you want to be the very last mom you know still dealing with diapers?

But, frankly, diapers are pretty easy. Even cloth ones. No dashing to find the restroom while picking out pineapples at the grocery store. No stopping the car anywhere, at anytime so the toddler can go do her business. No mopping up all kinds of accidents. Yup, diapers are just fine with me a while longer. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing?

However, with Kalina asking to use the toilet every night before bed, as well as other occasional times during the day, and having some fairly consistent success, I decided I'd be a pretty bad/stupid mom if I didn't at least let her give it a shot.

A little background: Kalina first used the potty probably as many as 5 months ago. Since then, it's been intermittent, except for when I got a little crabby after Kalina had an accident on my bed an hour before I really, really, really wanted to be asleep in it at the end of my looonng week when Matt was out of town and I was still nauseated from pregnancy and I had a heavy freelance load: for the next month, any kind of toilet use, other than climbing on it with the lid down, was nonexistent. That was fine with me. And then we were back in business.

After deciding with Matt on Tuesday evening that we were going to wait a bit until our schedules slowed down, I rushed out with Kalina Wednesday afternoon, since she'd pottied twice that day, and bought underwear-like training pants in pretty pink. At the store, Kalina didn't want them but was happy to wander around in them later at home. Anything to get out of a diaper change.

And so today dawned and we officially kicked off Day 1 of potty training. Kalina and I smiled into each others' eyes with equal enthusiasm as the first signs of success were flushed triumphantly into our city's sewers (or wherever it goes), and I promised myself she'd mostly have the hang of it by the end of the day.

I almost convinced myself I was having fun. I reminded myself that there would probably be accidents.

I have, of course, heard much conflicting advice about potty training methods, including:
Reward/don't reward
Lavish praise/don't lavish praise
Use Pull-Ups/don't use Pull-Ups
Spend lots of time on the potty/don't spend lots of time on the potty
Make it a big deal/don't make it a big deal
And so forth.

Instead of garnering even more conflicting advice from an armful of potty-training books, I'm winging it. This is probably a bad idea, but I don't want to put Kalina in a diaper (or whatever) long enough to take her to the library. I do take advice from the Internet.

There is, I soon learned, a certain amount of tediousness to potty training. For one, we have to stay home. When we went outside, we had an accident. And it's a beautiful day. For another, I have to watch the child at all times for signs that she's ready for a trip to the bathroom. This means that my grandiose plans for cleaning the bathroom and getting other odd jobs done around the house are out the window. What's more, Kalina's been working on her alphabet and improving her fork/spoon eating skills at the same time--the girl clearly has a lot on her plate. She needs lots of hugs and lots of stories. I've basically been following her around a lot and spoiling her a little.

This didn't get me down, though, especially since the girl ate a lovely breakfast and her entire sandwich for lunch, and so it was a good morning.

As of naptime, we'd had plenty of success and only a couple accidents, but were both worn out (also from the fact that Kalina neglected to nap yesterday in favor of waiting up for another story). Kalina happily let me put a diaper on her for her nap and I happily fastened it and removed myself from potty-training worries for the next 2 hours.

It's amazing how fast the excitement and exhilaration of potty training dissipated after the too-short-for-both-of-us nap. We were united only in the fact that neither of us really wanted to see a toilet again for a good week, let alone read stories while sitting on the floor next to it (okay, maybe that part was just me). But we slogged through the afternoon, me trying to motivate both myself and a now-reluctant girl to keep going now that we've begun. Kalina solved her discontent with the situation by almost preferring to have accidents rather than face the porcelain beast; I solved it by counting down the minutes until Matt would be home with a fresh perspective for both of us. We were both thrilled to see him, and he and I spent most of the evening trying to hand off potty-training duties onto each other while the other did anything but.

And so Kalina's on her way to becoming a big girl, and I'm having my first real experience of wanting her to stay a baby instead. Until now, each big advance has made life easier, but I have my doubts about this one in light of the treacherous path we both have to tread in getting there. I feel like I've been rocketed back to the newborn days, when my life seemed to be ruled almost completely by my child's bodily functions, I was trapped in the house and everything was just messy.

Round 1 is now over because tomorrow we're leaving for a beach vacation. Although progress was made, I still have my doubts and questions about the whole potty training thing. Is Kalina really, truly ready? How many more days will revolve around visits to our boring old bathrooms? Will Kalina begin to refuse to use it altogether, setting us back months or years? Will it spoil our vacation (perish the thought)? Will we be able to pick up where we left off once we get back home? Stay tuned. If you hear nothing, it's because nothing is happening. And that's probably okay for both of us.

Photo: Kalina and her tall block tower. It ended up being 2 very unsteady blocks higher than in this picture, which made it almost exactly as tall as her. After each block beyond the midway point, by the way, she did her signature "Olympic dismount" move (step back, arms wide in a "look-at-me" fashion), which meant that she was really, really proud of herself.

Baby's Big Ultrasound!

Today was Baby #2's big ultrasound! Yay!

Let me expand. For about a week, I've been able to think of nothing else.
1. You get cute pictures. And Kalina ended up looking a lot like her pictures, only even cuter.
2. You get to find out whether you're having a boy or a girl.
3. Who knows? The baby may wave at you!
4. You get to make sure the baby is healthy and happy.

Numbers 1-3 have made me extremely excited this entire week. Who isn't excited about getting a sneak-peek of their anticipated bundle of joy!

And as with Kalina, Number 4 sunk on ultrasound eve, leaving me a bundle of nerves and almost wanting to send just Matt and Kalina to the ultrasound while I stayed home.

Not to mention the fact that I might have a boy! And what in the world would I do with a boy? Babyproof, for one.

Needless to say, I was awake far earlier than I needed to be (a trend lately with a form of early-morning pregnancy insomnia that I'm not liking) and could do nothing but a routine of fret-pray-fret-pray until 8:15 rolled around and I was in the ultrasound chair and Matt and Kalina and Lamby and Mountain Lion and Blue Bear were in another chair, rooting Baby 2 and I on.

The first glimpse we had zeroed in on the baby's spine, and I admit I breathed an initial sigh of relief. You need a spine. The baby's looked good. Check that off the list.

We soon found the brain (sigh of relief), four-chambered heart beating at 148 beats per minute (sigh of relief) and other major organs (sigh of relief).

And our kind ultrasonographer spent lots of time trying to get a cute profile shot, and a cute face shot, and cute shots of the arms and legs. Once she had zeroed in on the baby's cute face, she switched on the 3D/4D function and commented that this baby looks a lot like Big Sister. We agree, so far! And are pleased that Baby 2 is likely to be as cute as Kalina. Not that there was much doubt.

We also chatted about Kalina's ultrasounds, which were done by the same ultrasonographer, which I think is cool.

We noted that this baby seems fairly active, and was moving hands and arms and feet all over in cute ways. Another early walker?

And then came the end of the ultrasound, when the ultrasonographer told us the baby weighs approximately 10 ounces (good) and is right on schedule, maybe about 3 days small, but I think that's right where Kalina was at this time.

But wait!!! What are we forgetting??? Pregnancy brain did not make me overlook one big thing: I asked the ultrasonographer if she could tell whether the baby's a boy or a girl.

We took a peek. This baby being as uncooperative as Kalina was during hers, we couldn't quite tell for sure, however based on all of her looking around, and a few quick glimpses, she was pretty sure the baby's a GIRL!!!

Of course, no ultrasound is certain, but we're taking her word for it: she has tons of experience and she sounded as sure as she was with Kalina. And if there's a surprise at the end of this, that's fine too!

We're both very excited for our new little girl, and Kalina (who did spectacularly well during the ultrasound, by the way) seemed pretty excited, too.

Actually, I have to admit to being ecstatic. I'm 100% confident I would be just as ecstatic if the baby had turned out to be a boy in the ultrasound, so I think it's a combination of relief from seeing a healthy baby and enjoying knowing a bit more about our little family.

What's more, I still don't have to delve into the mysteries of raising a boy. Kalina's sweet dresses and other outfits will hopefully make their appearances again (although being born in a different season will force us to buy some new things, too :) ), and we'll all sit around having tea parties and staying relatively clean. Can't wait!

Most of all, as you can imagine, we feel so grateful and blessed that it looks like we'll have another healthy little baby!

Photos:
1. Does she have Kalina's nose? We're so grateful for this sweet picture!
2. Another nice one.
3. Profile. Is she smiling?
4. The ultrasonographer managed to catch the baby yawning! Did you know that unborn babies yawn? Crazy! I guess she'd had a big morning.