Hi all,
My daughter is almost two, and all of a sudden has started asking to
sit on the potty. She prefers to do it fully clothed, and while one
of her parents are sitting on the toilet, but I figured it was time to
start reading up on the topic.

My guess is that she's still a bit young for this - she is starting to
show some signs of readiness: She tells me when she poops, and is
asking to be changed (a huge change from 18 months of HATING to be
changed), but she isn't showing other signs - she doesn't hold her pee
consciously as far as I can tell, or even understand the concept of
waiting. My guess is that she's starting to be aware of the function
of the toilet and is copying us. I got the potty out because she
*asked* to poop on the potty (I about fell over in shock!).

She's sat on the potty (mostly because she follows one of the adults
into the bathroom several times, a couple of times with no diaper (at
bath time) but hasn't actually gone in the toilet. She even "wiped"
and threw the toilet paper into the potty!

Now, long ago, after watching a family member go through a difficult
potty training, where using the toilet turned into a power struggle
(and as soon as they gave up - she decided to use the toilet), Chris
and I decided that we would let Kivi train herself. When she was
ready, she would ask US to train. The reasons go back further than
that - Chris's mom had a lot of difficulty potty training him, and we
decided that potty training should be child-led.

However, that doesn't mean we know what we are doing with regard to
the topic! My stepson trained easily when he was about 2 years 8
months, but his Mom did it while we were on our honeymoon, much to our
relief. She just told us what to do when we got back.

Are there any good potty training books or resources out there that
follow our philosophy?

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01