Goodbye Thumb, Hello Pinkalicious Potty

I was trying to delay this until Greg came home in March....but as always, Ellie has her own plans. I am nervous about potty training in a mostly carpeted house but at least us having brown carpets works to our advantage in this situation.  When we potty trained Ava it took us 6 months because she would regress every time Greg left for work ups. I promised I would not force the issue with Ellie until she was truly ready.  Not surprisingly, she is motivated by fashion to wear "fancy panties" like sissy and is lusting after some Minnie Mouse big girl panties. Wish me luck this weekend.

On a side note, this week I took Ava to her new pediatric dentist in Fresno. We are enamored with Dr. Powell. Ava had a nasty face plant in late November that damaged one of her front teeth. Our dentist in Virginia said she would need a root canal and that he didn't have a papoose (aka straight jacket) small enough to restrain her during it. This dentist said that a root canal might not be necessary and we would revisit the situation in two months to see how the tooth is healing. If a root canal is necessary he said he will not use a papoose. He said he builds trust with the kids he works with, works quickly, and only does enough that she can handle. If she freaks out during the procedure then they try again the next day. Worst case scenario if she doesn't respond well to treatment they will take her to a hospital setting and give anesthesia for the procedure. The miracle of this visit was that I told him she was a thumb sucker and we had tried many methods to get her to stop and all were unsuccessful. Dr. Powell then had a heart to heart talk with Ava asking her why she sucked her thumb, when she sucked her thumb, etc. Then he showed her with his mirror how she was moving her teeth forward, showed her the xray of her adult teeth coming in, and explained to her how important it was to stop sucking her thumb. He then asked her if she would be willing to stop sucking her thumb for a week. When she agreed the dentist said that he would personally be calling her next Tuesday and if she had a successful week he would be buying her an icecream. He gave us a coldstone gift certificate and Ava was thrilled. The technique has worked and we have gone 4 days without thumb sucking! We had a celebratory breakfast date afterwards and Ava came home telling Ellie how much fun it is to go to the dentist. Our healthcare in California has been spectacular with each doctor we have seen taking their time with us, building rapport and trust.  So this weekend instead of watching the big game we will be doing the big game of potty training and thumb sucking avoidance.