Underpants, Potty Training and Separation Anxiety! Oh My!

Just a little update post on our two little wonders.

Sophie is now almost completely potty trained during the day. We moved her over to big girl underpants about 4 days ago and so far she has done pretty good. We use pull ups at night and that seems to be working out too. Now we were originally rewarding her with Hershey's kisses when she used the bathroom but I recently took those away and am just rewarding her with a "great job" from mom. So far, the verbal reward actually seems to have more lasting power than the kissies. Unfortunately, Josie also saw that chocolate was being doled out to anyone sitting on the toilet so she has decided to start potty training as well. In theory, this sounds great right?! Get them both potty trained at the same time. I know in the long run it makes sense but currently, I feel like I spend 1/3 of my day in the bathroom. Josie will only go #2 on the toilet and sadly the verbalization of "poo poo" comes out sounding like she is asking for a bottle. So I often run to the kitchen to get her a bottle only to realize that she has just hunkered down for the long storm in her diaper. And as for the reward, the verbal praise just doesn't fly with Josie. As soon as she sits on the toilet her hand flies up toward the counter and she makes a sound that is pretty close to "chocolate!". Once I explain that she actually has to produce something for her reward (or as my brothers boyfriend put it, "make a kiss to get a kiss") she wails. I have some mini M&M's in the kitchen and am debating switching to those for a reward as I won't give her a whole kiss which means I end up eating 3/4 of it. Lord knows I don't need any more chocolate than I already eat.

In addition to using the bathroom now, Josie has also started refusing to leave my side. If Jake is pushing her in the stroller and I drop two feet behind him she starts wailing "Momma! Mommy! Momma!" until I come back into view. Basically any time she gets more than two feet away from me and is with another adult, she will wail. I guess I need to get out of the house alone more often. Hopefully it is just a phase and our new babysitter won't lose it when she comes over for the first time.