Preschool!

I mentioned in an earlier post that Miriam was potty trained. Why we even bothered doing it this early (not that she wasn't ready--she was!) is because when she turned two she could start preschool at Niko's school, but in order to do so she needed to be potty trained. We did this primarily because Jesse's teaching semester started back up in March and with my full load of grad school classes, we needed a childcare option for her in order for us to both get our work done. But we also suspected she'd love playing with the other kids, and knew that it would be a good chance for her to learn Russian. Two weeks she started at school, and so far it has satisfied all of those hopes and needs! 

Here's A blurry Miri on her first day of preschool:

It's quite a workout to get both kids up and ready for preschool, but as the weather warms up there are less layers to apply, which shaves a few minutes off. 

And now a little about how potty training went: 

Miri has been interested in using the potty for awhile, so we went with the 3 day method of potty training (which is how we did it for Niko too). For those that aren't familiar, it goes something like this: 

Day 1: Let the child run around with no pants or underwear, give them lots of juice and let them watch a tv show. Every 15 minutes, have them sit on the potty (don't ask them if they want to--just tell them it's time). For Miri, when she successfully urinated, she'd get one M&M (or 2 for poop). One M&M was actually enough of a incentive for her (it wasn't for Niko), but this is in part because she only got one if she was successful (not just for trying). 

Day 2: Just like day one, but with underwear on. 

Day 3: Same procedure, but with underwear and pants. 

After day 3, it's usually safe to start taking short outings out, though with Niko I think we still put him in diapers sometimes and naptime and bedtime are usually still in diapers. 

Miriam had a few accidents the first few days, and then a few for the few weeks after, but she's been potty trained for almost two months now and I'd say that she rarely has 1 accident per week (she had none last week!) 

We had also planned on keeping her in diapers at naptime and bedtime for a good long while, BUT then we realized that she was waking up from naps and in the morning with a completely dry diaper. SO we just started keeping her in underwear, and she hasn't wet the bed once! This is pretty unusual though, at least in our experience--Niko wasn't night potty trained until he was 3, and we still wake him up at night before we go to bed to take him to the bathroom. 

All in all, we've been much more successful than we expected! 

Also, I want to point out that I'm saying "we" all throughout because potty training was really a team effort. Jesse was taking care of Miriam during the mornings while I worked (before he started teaching again) so he was the one that primarily headed up the potty training. I want to point this out primarily because there's an unspoken assumption that potty training (and other childcare tasks) are something that primarily moms are responsible for, but I want to point out that dads are just as capable and responsible for their kids!