Day 10 Potty Update

Ok, so HERE we are after day 10 of potty training and I feel weird saying it, but I kind of think we are done with the "training phase"!  They have done so much better than I expected.  Absolutely no accidents for the last 4 days, consistently telling me when they have to go, and even waking from their sleep to go potty at 3:00am - which brought about many, many flashbacks of bottle feedings when they were itty bitty!  Here are a few things I've learned in the last ten days:

1. It is absolutely necessary to keep a potty chair in the car at all times.  This one threw me for a loop, but we have let Raegan pee away with the tailgate open at Neighborhood Market - and yes, people saw.  She can't hold it while we walk to the bathroom at the back of the store yet.  When she or Christian tell me they have to go THEY HAVE TO GO.  
2. Raegan thinks it is just as much fun to pee on Cheerios as Christian does. 
3. Reward them carefully.  We started with just chanting them on and singing but then I thought a prize box might be more fun.  That just led to them asking for it constantly.  I threatened to give the whole box to a neighbor kid.  Stickers and M&M's led to the same thing.  So we just play cheerleader instead :)  
4. I REALLY had to be ready to train them.  I have to stop everything to take them to the potty at a moment's notice.  Stop cooking, stop driving, stop eating…etc.  
5. I got lucky.  I'm pretty good at reading my kids and knowing when they are or aren't ready for something new but I really did expect this to be much more of a messy, tiring process.  Especially training two kids at the same time.  Letting them play naked outside almost all summer helped so much - they got used to stopping what they were doing and going over to the grass to pee.  No clean up if there was an accident, no pressure…it was great.  I just got lucky with the timing and they both were ready and willing to follow my lead.  

I have no idea how I went from 2 two year olds in May to what seems like 2 four year olds now.  No daytime diapers, no more pacifiers, going back to separate classrooms at "school" (Mom's Day Out) soon.  It's crazy, but so awesome.