Pre-potty training: recognizing signals

Stats: 11 months

Here was my thought process: If I can recognize when AV goes to the bathroom, then I'll try and see if I can get her to recognize it too.

For the past 3 weeks, I've been trying to see if I can recognize when AV goes to the bathroom. I finally saw a pattern. She shudders when she pees (mostly right when she wakes up or is eating). She goes off to a corner and grunts when she poos, after which she comes over to me probably so I'll change her. She usually poos once a day, in the afternoon.

This is good. I can recognize it and she has a pattern.

So I started saying "potty?" and pointing to her bum. At first she would clap her hands and think I said "patty" as in patty-cake. Oh well.

This went on for a few weeks. I tried to be consistent. But let's be honest, she is with Jake and the babysitter so it's not like I was doing this 100% of the time. At this point, I wasn't stressing. I tried to change her diaper promptly, and said "potty" a zillion times if I thought she was using the bathroom. I kept wondering if I was saying it too much? Was she making the connection?

I decided to let her sit on the toilet, seat closed. She thought it was funny.

So that day, I went out and bought a toilet ring potty. There is NO WAY I'm getting one of those narsty miniature potties where you have to clean it out. Ewww. Not my thing.