The phrase "hostage crisis" around our household means potty training Ray. It's been about four months since we began, and it's been an uphill battle. For the most part, she's been resistant and/or lazy, which means she has A LOT of accidents. We've seen various signs in her from the beginning that indicate to us that she understands the process, but we've never gotten to the point where we could see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Until now!!
Ray has been dry about 80% of the time in the last week, which is amazing. On Monday, she stayed dry all day without constant prodding from us, so we drew a big star on the calendar for her. We encouraged her to "earn another star" the next day, and she did pretty good. I think she might have had one accident all day. So we decided to see if she'd be ready to work towards a bigger reward...bigger than the M&M she receives after each trip to the potty. We told her that if she got 5 stars, we would reward her with an ice cream cone.
Since ice cream isn't a staple in our house...it's not safe around me...this challenge got her very excited.
She's had a few accidents throughout the week, but we're willing to be somewhat forgiving. We don't expect her to be perfect all the time. Today, she's well on her way to earning star #5...and the coveted ice cream cone.
We plan to continue down this path, and if she does well, we're going to issue the BIG CHALLENGE. We've spotted a cute little bicycle that she can earn. I want to give her another week or two of ice cream rewards to see if she'll stick with us. If she does, then we'll whet her appetite by showing her the bicycle at the store...let her ride around on it...get her excited...and then begin the challenge.
They say it takes only 21 days to form a new habit. If she can continue on this track, we will be able to officially move out of the "training" phase and into "maintenance". What a glorious day that will be!!!
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