Meet Potty Patty

This week marked the start of summer in Arizona, and a beautiful one at that. The weather is gorgeous, staying in the 70s at night. Grammy & Papa are headed back to Wisconsin for the better part of the summer, which makes us a little sad because Madelyn has a very special relationship with them. We’ll miss them over the next couple months, but we are very excited for them because they get to take a break and relax. And they most certainly deserve it!

Miss Allison will start watching Madelyn next week, and that is another relationship that continues to blossom over the years. Allison takes such good care of Madelyn. As a matter of fact, I think Madelyn thinks she’s her sister, which is fine. (She also thinks Chloe is her sister.) We love Ally to pieces so it’s a great match!

I wanted to take a minute and introduce our newest summer friend, Potty Patty. Little Miss Patty is a very special doll that Madelyn will be teaching how to use the potty. Yep. This weekend will mark the beginning of potty training. Chris and I are both a little nervous and a little excited. We’re just hoping things go smoothly. We figure Madelyn will be at home most of the summer so it’s the perfect time to give this a try.

One of my friends told me about a process called Potty Training in One Day. At first I laughed at the idea, but after I read the book she sent me, I started to wonder if it could really work. It’s based on the principle that children learn best if they can actually teach what they’re learning to someone else. As a teacher, I believe in this theory because I have seen it work in the classroom. I am hopeful it will help in this process. Now, whether or not it happens in one day, well, we’ll just have to see. We know Madelyn is bright, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on her. So we'll take it one day at a time, and if it takes more than one day we're okay with that.

We’ll keep you posted throughout the weekend to tell you how things are going. Please feel free to leave comments with any funny potty training stories and good advice. :)