Last weekend we took Reaghan to see her first play! A couple years ago I probably would've said it would be a little ridiculous to take a 3 year old to a play. Even as I type that I think it sounds crazy, a 3 years old at a Broadway "type" play?! But I'm so glad we went. Reaghan and her cousin Brooklyn are really into Lion King right now, it is one of their favorite movies, So when we saw through our zoo membership that the Hurrah Players {a family theater group based in Hampton Roads}were putting on this play and we could get a discount on tickets with our zoo passes, we thought it would be fun to take them!

We've been trying to have special "big girl dates" with Reaghan every now and then since Lilly was born. Usually it is a daddy daughter date somewhere... sometimes its spending special one on one time with mommy to do nails or crafts... more recently I took her to the movies just the two of us and we had a fun little girls night! Anyways, this was an extra special big girl date because it was with mommy AND daddy while Lilly stayed home with Uncle Noah. :)

First a Big Girl Bed and now potty training! Reaghan is getting the hang of all of the big girl milestones before she becomes a big sister and its so bittersweet to watch.

Potty training has been just a tad bit more challenging than the transition to a big girl bed. Before we started she hadn't actually gone to the bathroom on a potty before but was showing all the other signs of being ready. She was super interested whenever I used the bathroom and always wanted to flush the toilet for me. She wanted her diaper changed right away after she would poop and was even telling me several times throughout the day when she peed in her diaper.

I was nervous to start because I once we started I didn't want to go back to diapers but I wasn't totally sure she was ready. I mean, theres no way to know unless you try right? I really wanted to make sure when we started that it was for good and I knew if we didn't do it now then it wouldn't happen until the spring, well after the baby was here, and the thought of that spurred me on to just get it done! I'd always heard that doing it in a weekend was possible and thats the way we wanted to go.

Prep Work:

We talked it up with Reaghan for a few days before we planned to start to get her really excited about what was about to happen. We bought a little potty chair for her for the bathroom and had her practice sitting on it at night before bath for a few days before we started. I took her to the store and we picked out some pretty underwear and Mark picked out a few potty training books that we started reading with her a couple days before as well.

Reward:

Potty chart with stickers and a bowl of M&M's - 2 for pee, 5 for poop!

Day 1:

When we got up that Thursday morning I excitedly got her out of her bed and reminded her that today was the day that we were starting to go potty on the potty like a big girl! I texted Mark to pray for us and I put her in panties right away and we went out for breakfast. She had lots of accidents that morning but we just cleaned them up together and I said things like "uh oh. pee goes in the potty. lets try harder next time!" and "remember if you feel pee coming to tell mommy!" We spent the morning sitting on towels in the living room reading books, coloring and drinking lots of juice and lemonade. Her favorite activities! And setting a timer on my phone for trying to go potty every 15 minutes. We would sit and read on the potty and if she didn't have to go then we just tried again later. She successfully peed in the potty for the first time around 11:45! I realized I didn't have any stickers to put on the potty chart I made her so I texted Mark to stop and get stickers on his way home for lunch. She LOVED putting stickers on the chart and I realized that was motivating her way more than the promised M&M after a successful pee pee. By nap time at 2:30 I was exhausted! She had peed on the potty 7 times but had also had twice as many accidents! I put her in a diaper for nap time and was happy to take a break from being on a constant potty vigil!