By Diana Day
The first in an occasional series about potty-training my two-and-a-half year old daughters.
They haven’t even looked at a potty once, not once, since they got their prizes.
I thought I was being clever by promising that Dinah and Djuna could have a reward for making the smallest step forward toward potty-training. All they had to do was sit and “try” to go, and they’d be able to pick out lunch boxes to pretend to go to school with. (Our girls learned about school from Blue’s Clues, and though they won’t start nursery school until this coming fall, they already love to play “going to school.”)
They had been interested in the toilet and in the concept of peeing for awhile but wouldn’t dare to sit on it until I offered the reward.
Djuna was very motivated by the lunch box offer and was the first to allow me to lift her onto the potty without a diaper on. But Dinah was afraid. I asked Djuna to tell her that there was nothing to be afraid of, and she did so, charmingly.
It was one of those moments when you feel the magic of having twins — Dinah, with her sister’s encouragement, agreed to take off her diaper and sit on the toilet.
The next day, we went to Target and chose the lunch boxes. I was in favor of the lunch boxes with the embroidered flowers and the velcro holder for a drink bottle, but Dinah chose the baseball-shaped lunch box, and Djuna chose the football-shaped lunch box.
And now they love to say “bye-bye” and “I’ll see you later” as they trudge through the house carrying their lunch boxes and wearing their rain boots.
The potty, however, is a distant memory.