Second time's a (potty) charm

They say that if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. So over the long Memorial Day weekend, that's exactly what we did: Five months after giving up on potty training Dahlia, we finally got back in the saddle and put her back on the potty. And this time, she got it!

"Welcome back, potty sister!"

Or perhaps I should say that we got it: If there's one thing we've learned from potty training multiple kids within a short time frame, it is that every kid is different—and not every kid is ready at the same time. Lucy, for example, responded wonderfully to the 3-day method just before the kids turned two. Jude, on the other hand—despite an auspicious beginning at 26 months—did not stay reliably dry until we made a few adjustments to the 3-day method, including putting him on the potty at regular intervals and coming up with a much better prize than M&Ms.

For Dahlia, we decided to once again follow the basic principles of the 3-day method. This time, however, we started with a few tweaks, right off the bat, based on what we learned about her during the first round. For instance, since her biggest hurdle is her insistence on holding it until she busts, if we know she needs to go, we now make her sit on the potty until she does. And guess what? It's working so well that she is even going #2 on the potty, something that our two veteran potty-trainees have yet to master. Go, Dahlia!