When Mum got a new neighbour whose 2 year old daughter is fully toilet-trained, I got anxious. Really anxious. My mother didn't seem keen though, she was more afraid my daughter would soil her carpets in those unavoidable accidents that precedes any success story "Dorang tak sembahyang," she would say "Nanti tempat sembahyang kena najis pulak!" Hrrrr...
But try Mummy must as Arissa is already 3 months into her 2nd birthday (do I hear 'kiasu' being muttered there?). The signs were not all there- she was dry only at times, she would say 'poo' although she actually needed a tinkle, she can pull her pants down only after much struggle- but I was still convinced that I needed to get her in the mode first. And I didn't want to be buying diapers for 2 babies come July either, it was a cost-saving measure in these recessionary times (';').
The transitional strategy I had formulated is simple, I don't know if they're proven but it made sense to me. Firstly, I should get her to recognise what potties are used for- by sitting her there 5-10 minutes after every meal/milk feed. Stripping off the diaper should come a few weeks later, first with training pants then without.
So off I traipsied to Seiyu and Ikea to get her training pants and several potties. It took a few days of getting her to sit on the potty during bath time, she used it as a pail for her bubbles at first but then the breakthrough came one night when after 10 mins of me going "Icha, please pee in the potty" she actually hunched over it and squeezed in her belly in an effort to expel whatever was in there. She didn't actually pee in the damn potty that night but I thought it was a great advancement as it meant she knew what the actual purpose of a potty was (ie. not a bubble tub)!!
And this morning at bath time, without me urging, she suddenly grabbed her potty while mumbling "PooPoo", sat on it and pee-ed a bucketful! I clapped my hands and praised her as though she had just won the 100m dash in the Olympics.. that was how elated I was.
OK Spocko, granted it was potty timing, not training because she had just drunk a full bottle but a) she knew it was coming and b) she knew where it should go. No matter, one baby step at a time.. I still have 3 more months to de-diaper her. Erkkk..