He is, as I've said, very smart and verbal for his age and I thought he would catch on pretty quickly. When he was around 19 months old I tried the 3-day potty training "boot camp" of sorts where you can train them in just one weekend. He understood the concept and for awhile that first morning he was excited to pee in the potty. But things took a turn and we didn't even make it all the way through day one because he started to sob and scream and cling to me for dear life when I would try to put him on the potty. He was overwhelmed and we both ended up in tears. We clearly needed to wait.
I thought we would put the potties away for a few weeks and try again and still have time to train before Maisy was born. But when a few weeks went by and I was then just a few weeks away from having a baby, I was miserable and the thought of wrangling a toddler to the potty a bajillion times a day and cleaning up accidents off the floor sounded like unneeded torture for everyone.
I knew it was definitely not the end of the world to have two kids in diapers for awhile and when he was ready and I was ready, it would happen.
Fast forward...
Maisy was born January 4th and all was wonderful and happy. Potty-training moved way down on the list of things that needed to happen. Graeme was already dealing with enough transitions and a newborn requires quite a bit of attention.
After a few weeks of her being here and as his second birthday approached, the potty started to come up in conversation again. Like all little boys, it was pretty much a guarantee that he would start peeing as soon as he got in the bath every night. Aaron thought it would be a good start to try letting him go on the potty right before his bath. Graeme liked this idea and he would sit there and talk about "His pee pee coming," and "Push it out!" and clearly he understood what should happen. But night after night he refused to actually ever pee on the potty and when we finally gave up he would go in the tub while saying "Pee pee in the tub!" We would *face palm* and say, "No, Buddy, pee pee goes in the potty! Where does pee pee go?" "In the potty!" he would exclaim. Oh the mysterious minds of toddlers.
He began to take notice of the underwear in his dresser (that I had purchased for our previous potty adventure) and pulled it out almost daily. I would tell him that it was for when he didn't wear diapers anymore. So he would say "Wear underwear when I don't need diapers anymore!" "Yeah Buddy! Do you want to try going to the potty?" "No." *face palm*
He also started to complain about having his diaper changed all of the time and I would tell him "You don't have to have your diaper changed anymore if you go in the potty. Do you want to go to the potty?" "NO!" Another *face palm*
So, it was clear that he would need a little push to get this thing started.
At the beginning of April I worked up my nerve that this was the month that we would try again. I had to wait until this past weekend because we had already scheduled plans for the first two weekends of April. I set up a sleepover for Maisy with my parents so we would be able to focus even more on the task at hand.
I didn't want to do the intense "boot camp" again, although I figured I would use parts of it. Graeme doesn't do well with a lot of pressure. Or a lot of change. I definitely didn't want to scare him away from the potty again so I figured we would try to keep our day as normal as possible. I bought him a few cheap little "prizes," as well as some "Cars" stickers to put on a "Potty Chart" that I made on computer paper (Because he clearly can't read nor does he care about my lack of fancy chart abilities). I knew we also had some Easter candy in the pantry for extra reinforcement.
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| Spoiler alert: the chart is full so we did have success! |
I bought Pull-Ups too. The book I had read before said there was nothing wrong with Pull-Ups per se, but that they could confuse kids because they basically feel like a diaper. I bought them with the intention of using them on outings for awhile and plan to mostly use them over a pair of regular underwear so he will still feel the uncomfortable wet when he has an accident. And I knew it was also completely normal and expected that he would still wear a diaper for naps and at night. The book also said to just use your pure excitement as motivation for them to go on the potty. For Graeme, I knew the tangible motivation would work way better.
We started on Friday morning. I knew as soon as we could get him to go on the potty for the first time we would be getting somewhere. But until then, it would be a bit tricky. He sat on the potty after I got him out of bed that morning, but wouldn't pee. That's okay...I literally have no expectations for how this day will pan out.
I put a pair of underwear on him and we headed downstairs. My sister-in-law gave us a few waterproof mattress covers that we covered the couch with so he could sit on it like he does every morning. (He is a routine kid through and through.) I turned the TV on for him and got him his milk and sat him on the little potty that we put in the living room. Nothing. We moved on to breakfast.
The morning went on and he peed in his underwear a few times. We kept reminding him that pee pee goes in the potty and that he could have lots of fun things if he would do it. Finally, we got him to sit on the potty long enough that he peed! We made a huge deal. "Here's a new little Hot Wheels truck! Here's two Skittles to eat at 8am! Let's put a sticker on your chart!"
He was so happy and from then on he had a much better idea of what he needed to do. We kept up the stickers and candy that first day and would give him a little toy every few stickers he added to his chart.
Unfortunately for Aaron, I had a doctor's appointment that morning that I really needed to go to. I had to leave him with Maisy and Graeme on potty patrol alone for almost two hours. Aaron somehow survived, and Graeme had a few accidents but also went on the potty a couple more times while I was gone.
When I got home, it was nap time, and we could all regroup for a bit. I put a diaper on him before nap (which he immediately pooped in of course). After a little bit of lamenting the fact that I was changing yet another diaper on this kid, I put a clean diaper on him and he was sound asleep right away from all of his hard work that morning.
After nap time, Aaron took Maisy to my parents and Graeme and I stayed home to keep on potty-ing on. I started to implement a new strategy of reminding him literally twice a minute to "Keep your underwear dry." And lo and behold, it worked. He didn't have another accident the rest of the day. I just made sure to also make him at least try to pee every 20 minutes or so.
Friday night, when he was snug in bed with a diaper on (at that point, a diaper I was relieved to put on), Aaron and I crashed on the couch with Chili's Take-Out and celebrated a good, hard day's work. And it was just the beginning!
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| There were still five dry pairs after that first day...out of like 15! |
Graeme continued to do really well all weekend. Saturday he only had two little pee pee accidents in the morning. We decided that an outing was in order for the three of us. We haven't had a day to only spend with Graeme in months so we wanted him to have fun and not just be sitting on the potty all day. We drove to the grand-opening of the new library. Graeme had a Pull-Up on over his underwear. We brought the little potty in the van and we tried to get him to use it before we went inside the library. He was not interested. Oh well, at least I knew it was pointless for me to lug that with me everywhere.
Once inside, we let him run around for a few minutes while we constantly reminded him to stay dry. I wasn't sure how he would react to going potty somewhere else besides home, let alone on a big potty. But, there's a first time for everything. I took him to the bathroom and he went with hardly any trouble. I was SO proud of him! He went one more time at the library before we left and then we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. He used their bathroom twice! I was really quite surprised by how easy his first outing potty-training was.
We went home for nap time after lunch and celebrated that he kept his underwear dry the entire time we were out.
He did really well the rest of Saturday with no more potty accidents.
On Sunday, I figured church would be an interesting experience for him. I took him potty before I dropped him off at his class and he peed. I wasn't going to make his teachers mess with wet or dirty underwear so I put a Pull-Up on him. We laugh with his teachers because every Sunday he goes in the little tent in his class to do his "duty." His classroom is so busy I knew that it really wasn't possible for them to take him potty because he still won't tell anyone when he needs to go. I definitely didn't expect or want them to have the job of trying to take him to the potty every 20 minutes either. Sure enough, when I picked him up, his Pull-Up was full. Oh well. It wasn't wet, so that was something! He peed on the potty again and we made it home with dry underwear.
Sunday was another good day and he even accomplished pooping on the potty after dinner for the first time. Oh, the things we celebrate as parents! I had no idea how proud I could be of someone's bodily waste in a toilet. I decided it was time to make this officially official and take the changing pad out of his room. Hallelujah. Although it made Aaron cry almost!
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| It's just a dresser now! |
And here we are today, Monday. He went to Marbles with Aaron this morning for a little bit and then went to my parents for the day. He had a little accident this morning but it was the "number 2" again that tripped him up. I think it will just take a little more time for him to figure that one out.
He's doing so well and I am really, really proud of him. I think the reminders to keep his underwear dry will be important for him for at least a few weeks until he can remember himself. His only other set-back is that he sometimes has a hard time stopping the fun thing he is doing to try to go potty and he will just sit there on the potty and cry instead of just going and being done with it quickly! If only toddlers could understand that logic! Ha! We'll just keep on singing that good ol' Daniel Tiger toon and see what else this potty training adventure has in store for us...
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| "If you have to go potty, STOP and go right away! Flush and wash and be on your way!" |
