Potty Training OR "Throw the Kid in the Deep End"?

**UPDATE**

Noelle made it all day and all evening with only one accident!!! Yeehaa!!! (This one accident occured during lunch. Our kiddo highly values meal time. lol ) She is currently sleeping peacefully, wearing a pull-up, and her froggy potty chair is close at hand. We also removed the bed rail on her converted crib/toddler bed so she doesn't have to climb out to get to the potty. She did not actually potty (bm) today, so we'll see if that happens tonight - she had a messy diaper this morning. Hopefully our toilet training won't lead to constipation... Tomorrow - prune juice!

I'm very interested to see what the night holds.

But right now I'm on cloud 99!!!

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OOOOhhh do we dare???

Yes. Yes we do.

We sent Noelle to school in PANTIES!!!!!!!!!!

What led us to go out on a limb today, you ask?

Well...for the first time yesterday, Noelle, who was wearing panties from her naptime to bedtime, let us know when she needed to go tinkle and potty - first time ever that she seemed to recognize her body signals and then told us about it. WOOHOO!!!

So what did I do? Last night I went to WalMart and bought a super cheap potty chair in the form of a happy faced frog. It's perfect. Noelle loves frogs. She's got her stuffed animal "Froggy" that we sent in her China care package, and he's one of her best friends. She's got a frog blanket which also came to her in her China care package, and this blanket is oh-so-soft and cuddly yellow. And most recently she acquired some frog undies. See the theme here?
(Note: We actually have a friend who's got an "all the bells and whistles" chair she will be giving us the next time we see her, but frankly I was excited and couldn't wait until then.)

So this morning we snuck it into her bedroom before she was quite awake. When she saw it, she was all big smiles and wanted to immediately sit on it (fully clothed, at first). When asked if she wanted to wear a diaper or panties to school today, she insisted "Pantieeees!!!!" Then before heading out the door, Noelle pulled down her clothes, had a small but successful tinkle in the froggy chair, and pulled her panties and pants back up (only slightly askew) all by herself. Yay for our big girl!!!

So...I decided to just go for it. We hadn't even been working on the potty training much the past several days. I was about to give up because she seemed to find it all too exhausting. But after yesterday... Well, jump right in, I say!

So as I write this post, Noelle is off to preschool with Daddy. She is armed with a bag full of extra panties and pants. She left with a big "well done!" sticker on her chest and a huge smile on her face.

Tune in later for "Tinkle Watch"