Popular Posts from the Past: Potty Training Made Easy

[This is another popular post from my blogging past—probably the second most popular one. It was linked by a baby care site—one I hadn’t heard of previously and don’t remember—that sent me several hundreds hits a day for a month or so. These potty training rules continue to bring people to the old blog, referred from searches for “potty training.”

This is the method I used for training the last three of my children. The firstborn? She’s the kid I fussed over, bungling things up in a big way, and from whom I learned the potty training lessons that I applied successfully to the other three.]

From Rebecca’s Rule Book

I bet you didn’t know I have a rule book, did you? Well, I do. It’s impossible to raise four kids and not have a rule book to show for it. From the chapter on potty training, I give you these surefire steps.

1. Wait until the child is two and a half. Or two and a halfish. If you live where there are four seasons, wait until the spring/summer/nice weather nearest the two and a half milestone.
2. Make a trip to buy several pairs of toddler underwear bearing the likenesses of things beloved to the trainee. Don’t think you can substitute Pull-Ups! Pull-Ups, no matter how many gimmicks they add, can work against successful toilet training.
3. Don’t allow the precious panties to be worn yet. (Admiration, however, is encouraged.) Tell your trainee that these special unmentionables are being saved for that hallmark day when they begin using the toilet (or a tree) like mommy and daddy do.
4. Put the potty chair away. Go straight to more grown up receptacles like flush toilets. Unless, of course, you have some compelling reason to disregard this rule. Like, “But potty chairs are so cute,” or “I really prefer dumping to flushing.”
5. Wake up one day and say to yourself, “This is the day.” It’ll work best if this is a day with weather fine for staying outdoors and a day when you can stay home, but you can also opt for a day when you feel up to tolerating puddles indoors.
6. Dress the trainee in the cherished underwear and a t-shirt. Any more clothing is counterproductive. 
7. Go outdoors to play and wait for the first accident. Sympathize with the child over the wet underwear. Help the little one change to a new pair of similarly loved undies and have them put the old, wet ones in the hamper. Mention in passing that if the child feels like they need to pee, they can tell you and you will help them go in the toilet so the beautiful undies don’t get wet. Resist the urge to say much more than this, and avoid at all cost the question, “Do you need to go yet?”
8. Repeat step 7 as many times as necessary, for as many days as necessary. You will probably be surprised how few times step 7 needs to be repeated.
9. If your child is male and you have a private yard, feel free to encourage the use of a tree or fence post instead of the toilet. This will add to the potty training ease for you and the fun for him. You can always civilize him later, if necessary. If you do go this route, you may want to mention to the little guy that the parking meters on Main St. are not exactly the same thing as fence posts. And while we’re on the subject of prudent warnings, it’s also best to remind your potty trainee that the demo toilets in Home Depot are not for emergency use. With my own eyes I’ve seen the results of both these misunderstandings, and while they were certainly amusing, most of us would prefer to get this sort of shopping entertainment from other people’s children rather than our own.
10. There isn’t really a step 10. There IS a money-back guarantee of success. If you follow these steps religiously and your child still goes to kindergarten in diapers, please write for a refund.

Jane's Crunchy Poppyseed Chicken Salad

Another contribution to the Recipe Round Up from a non-blogger:

Here’s a great summer salad recipe:

4 cups broccoli slaw (or rainbow — broccoli, califlower and carrot slaw)
2 large red peppers, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
4 medium carrots, shredded (about 2 cups)
1 can pineapple tidbits, drained (or mandarin oranges drained)
1 cup chicken breast cooked and cut up
1/2 cup creamy poppyseed dressing
1/4 cup cashews (or peanuts or almonds)

Combine all ingredients except dressing and cashews in large bowl.

Add dressing; toss to coat.

Sprinkle with cashews just before serving.

This is a great way to use leftover chicken. And because it’s all cold, you don’t heat up the kitchen in the summertime.

Check out the other salad recipes in today’s Recipe Round Up. 

Darlene's Tuna Salad

Nonblogging Darlene contributes a recipe for a simple summer pasta salad. She says it vanishes quickly in her home, and I bet it’ll vanish quickly in your home, too.

• 2 boxes Barilla Pasta (Rotini, Shells, Farfalle, or Cellentani)
• 4 cans of tuna (chunk light in water)
• mayonnaise (start with large spoonful…then add what you want)
• 1 1/2 lbs. cheddar cheese cubed
• sweet pickles, cut up - as many as you like
• salt and pepper
  

Just put it all together and refrigerate for a few hours.  Darlene says that some people in her family enjoy mustard with it, but  she likes them to add that to their own bowl.

The only trick is too not cook the pasta too long. Usually a minute or two less than what it says. Be sure and rinse the pasta in cold water right away - and then put your ingredients together. Enjoy!

That this is so simple is an added bonus, don’t you think?

If you are a nonblogger and you have a good summer salad recipe, you can email it to me like Darlene did, and I’ll post it and link it in tomorrow’s Recipe Round Up, too.