Potty Update, Zoya Can Whistle, and other Random Cuteness

Potty Update: We've been semi-potty training for over a year but honestly I think its the best way to train some kids with DS....slow and steady wins the race.  No pressure, no stress.  Zoya had been doing fabulous with a potty schedule and was just about "schedule trained" around March-ish. She would stay dry as long as we took her about every 45 minutes. Well then one day she just regressed and was no longer even semi-schedule trained. We decided we weren't going to push it and we put her back in pull ups full time and didn't stress about it. I did NOT want potty to become a power struggle so I just gave it a little break. We still took her several times a day at that point but nothing like we had been.

After our Florida trip we started up the serious potty business again :) We decided (with advice from a friend who is a behavior specialist and mama of two) to only reward her for dry pants and ignore wet pants-as in not even say anything when she wet her pants. I wasn't sure about it, but Zoya needs LOTS of positive encouragement and tends to either shy away or engage in a power struggle when she feels forced to do something and then nobody wins. So for a few days we checked her pants every 10 minutes or so and if she was dry we made a big deal about it and gave her an m&m. After a few days Zoya started telling us she was dry on occasion and asking for an m&m...smart girl haha. And guess what? Zoya is now initiating potty MANY times throughout the day! If she hasn't gone in an hour or so we will ask her if she needs to go or just take her, but she has been dry most of the past week! AND I figured out how to tell if she REALLY has to go or if she is trying to get out of something LOL. If she's just trying to get out of something (like eating at the table) she will actually sign "potty." She also does this in every store we go to when she sees a door that could lead to a potty. But we know she really has to go when she grabs her pull up or underwear....not the best sign to use but hey it works for now! We're still using pull ups most of the time unless we're going to be home for a long period of time....but its great because she only uses 2 pull ups a day.  She usually wakes up wet after her nap, which I'm not worrying about for a while longer.  In a few more weeks I will have her wear the underwear more and pull ups less. Hopefully it keeps up! Oh and #2? FORGET IT!

Here is some Zoya cuteness because I haven't posted in a while! I've been a little busy ;)

And.....the other day Zoya and I were home alone and I heard this loud whistling....I though what in the world? So I peeked into the living room from the kitchen and she was sitting on the couch whistling! It's the cutest thing ever!! It's a little hard to hear on this video but if you turn the volume up you should be able to hear it. I'm going to try to get a better video when she's not looking! It seems like she is whistling by sucking air in instead of blowing out but I think she can do both! So funny! I couldn't whistle until I was in HS...this girls got talent!! I love hearing her randomly whistle throughout the house its so cute!