It's been about 2 weeks since Carly started to "officially" use the potty. I received a text message at work from her teacher that she had used it, and ever since then there is no looking back. I get excited at the opportunity to pick out fun, new underwear everyday. Somehow, as indecisive as I am, the underwear is the easiest of all decisions.
However, there have been a few learnings for potty use outside of the house. A few are listed below (in no particular order).
1. Always cover the automatic flusher
2. Preempt the public restroom with a "it might be noisy” statement. Some toilets are quite loud
3. Expect to need to use the potty within 5 minutes of entering any store, and then only expect a couple of dribbles
4. Don't expect there to actually be soap in the dispenser when washing hands
5. Don’t expect there to be paper towels or a working dryer
5. The angle of the seat may cause pee to run down the front of the potty into child's underwear
6. Sometimes, as big as the potty is, the dirty tp may not make it into the bowl
7. A 3yr old is not capable of the foot flush
8. It takes great technique to hold the child, reach for tp & wipe (see #6)
9. Don’t expect the 2 pieces of tp you carefully placed onto the potty to stay in place
I am sure I will have a few more to add over the upcoming months. Hopefully an empty tp dispenser is not one of them.