So tonight we were all hanging out in the living room and Sydney farted. ...and then she farted again - loudly. Expecting a poo filled diaper to follow soon after, I asked Sydney if she wanted to go sit on the potty. To my surprise she got up and walked to the bathroom. I turned the light on and she sat right down on the potty. Meghan and I were thinking, "Hey, she gets it!"
I explained that we had to take her pants and diaper off to use the potty and that we had to take her shoes off to get her pants off. Of all things she was actually wearing overalls tonight. She wasn't real keen on letting me take her shoes off and complained to Meghan before relenting. Once her shoes and overalls were off, I took off her diaper. It was around this point when she started looking worried. Next I sat her on the potty just like a big girl. Her facial expression said it all.
She had no idea why she was sitting there or why she wasn't wearing her diaper. For her this had clearly gone from "Hey do you want to go sit in your new chair" to something far weirder.
She got up once, and I put her back on the potty. Then after seeing her facial expression, I just picked her up, carried her to her room, put a new diaper on her, and put her jammies on.
Now before someone points out to us that a 16 month old is not ready to be potty trained, I'd like to say that she sees the bigger kids at school using the potty and that Early Days suggested that we start. I'd also like to point out that if I say, "Can you put your shoes away?" she'll pick up her shoes, take them into her room, and put them in the cabinet where they belong. Knowing Sydney, I have a feeling that this is going to be like drinking out of a straw. There's no way to explain it in terms she can understand but if she does it once, we'll be set.