20 months!

Today was Charla's 20 month "birthday". On these monthly milestones I love to look back and see how far she's come. Over this past month she has accomplished a lot. She is now saying more words than I could ever hope to list. She is putting 2 words together, answering yes or no questions and following simple commands. While I'm reading some of her favorite books, she will jump in and finish the sentences. She helps get herself dressed and undressed, feeds the dog and cleans up her toys. All in all I believe she is coming along quite nicely!

Due to the fact that I believe she is a bit advanced in her understanding, we have started the potty training process. I introduced the potty a few months ago and she's gone on it a handful of times. I've never been super consistent because quite frankly, I wasn't ready to commit to such an undertaking. Today however, we have dived in.

I took her to the store after dinner to buy some panties. She had no idea what they were and initially thought they were cool new hats! Once I helped her put a pair on though, she was quite impressed with herself. I kept her pants off to try to minimize the mess, so she walked around the living room patting her panties and saying "panties". So adorable!

She sat on the potty twice but nothing happened. Finally, after about 35 minutes, she had her first accident. This was what I was waiting for because I knew we weren't going to make any progress without some mistakes first. The look on her face was priceless. While she was going she looked at me and said, "mama, poop"! I explained to her that she had gone pee pee, picked her up and took her to the bathroom. I told her that when she feels like she needs to go pee pee she should tell Mama so I can help her onto the potty. I asked her where does pee pee go and she pointed to the potty.

When we came back out to the living room she saw the wet spot on the floor and said "whoops, pee pee". I told her that this was her pee pee and again asked her where her pee pee goes. She went down the hall and pointed to the potty so I think she was starting to make some connections. She was also a bit concerned about her wet panties hanging over the tub to dry so I explained that she had went pee pee in her panties so they had to get washed, that was why she was wearing new, dry panties.

Tomorrow she is going to my mom's for the day so I won't be able to work with her much. This weekend though I'm hoping to have her in panties most of the time and see what happens. I would love her to be potty trained by the time she turns 2!