Potty Training-I Got It Right This Time!

Thanks to pressure and not-so-subtle hints from family members, I started potty training Princess when she was 18 months old.  The potty training went on for 18 long, agonizing months which were a total nightmare.  Finally at one month before her third birthday, she essentially potty trained herself.

I can tell you where I went wrong.

1. I listened to what other people were telling me to do with my child.  
2. I pushed Princess into starting the process before she was fully ready.  
3. I turned it into a battle which gave her an opportunity to dig in her feet.

When Little Man was born, I made a vow that I would not be repeating that first awful potty training experience.

Sleeping with "Brown Bear" from the Eric Carle book

So when Little Man was a year old, and I heard the whole "my kids were potty trained by the time they were 12 months old" spiel again, I smiled and let it go in one ear and out the other.  When he was 18 months old, and Hubby was concerned that I hadn't started potty training yet, I smiled and offered to let him take over the entire process.  When Little Man was almost 2, and someone pointed out how much money I could save on diapers by potty training him, I smiled and happily added diapers to the shopping list.  

When Little Man was 2 years and 3 months old, I decided to give it a try, mostly to prove to everyone else that he simply wasn't ready.  I was right, so I put the training underwear away again for a while.

Playing the guitar with Grandma

Then, I had a baby in September and the idea of potty training a toddler while taking care of a newborn really didn't appeal to me so I put it off even longer.  However, in late December, at the ripe old age of 2 years and 7 months, Little Man took the lead.  Every time, someone in the house went to the bathroom, Little Man tagged along to sit on the potty chair and within a short time, he was able to go every time he sat.  So, I unpacked the training underwear again and let him try them out.  I kept pull-ups on hand for leaving the house, naps, and bedtime (something most potty training experts say is a big no-no) and let him wear "big boy" underwear while we were at home.  It was rough for a few days with lots of accidents, but on day 4, it clicked and he started to take himself to the bathroom when he felt the urge.  By 3 weeks, with very little effort on my part, he was potty trained, night and day.  Pretty much painless and SOOOO much less stressful than potty training Princess.

I still put Little Man in pull-ups when we go out sometimes, but mostly because he had a setback when we were gone over the weekend last week and when he caught the flu.  For all intents and purposes, Little Man is potty trained.

*Insert big sigh of relief here.*   

  
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My Kids' New Years Resolutions

Being the little darlings they are, my children are always looking for ways to better themselves.  The precious angels even sat down this New Year's Eve to write New Year's Resolutions for themselves.  Here they are...

Princess:
1. I will not ask my mom the same question 17 times in a row when she answered me the first time.  Even if I don't like her answer.

2. I will pick up my toys when asked to instead of acting like using my toy-picking-up muscles will most likely kill me.

3. I will stop using my special powers to make it look like Mommy hasn't washed my face in weeks when we go to school or church even though she scrubbed my face thoroughly right before we left the house. 

Little Man:
1. I will stop thinking it's funny to make Bob the Builder cry by peeing in my Bob the Builder underwear.

2.I will accept the fact that Mommy and Daddy have to say no to me sometimes and hearing "that word" does not, in fact, destroy my entire universe.

3. I will stop getting out of bed at night 38 minutes after my parents put me in there to walk out in the living room and announce that I had a "goooooood nap." 

Star:
1. I will continue to be the sweetest, happiest baby on the planet.  I will not allow myself to go through one of those phases that completely change a baby's personality.

2. I will take notes on my brother's potty training progress/non-progress so I will be ready to potty train myself in 2 days flat in the year 2014. 

3. I will not stop eating food when I turn one like my older siblings did.  I will embrace new and unusual foods and will not change my mind about what I like to eat every 94 minutes.

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Random Observations

It amazes me how little boys can pee ON the potty chair, UNDER the potty chair, and AROUND the potty chair all in one sitting, but somehow avoid getting even one drop IN the potty chair.

Our neighbor gave us her old Christmas tree this year.  Which was really sweet and awesome and I love that it looks so much nicer than the $20 Walmart tree we had before.  Except that when I took all the Christmas decorations down yesterday, I realized that we have absolutely nowhere to store our awesome new tree.  The kids think it's neat that Christmas is over and there's a random pine tree "growing" in our living room.

I have the best baby in the world.  Seriously.  Total cutie, amazing sleeper, hearty eater. 
  

Laundry.  Blech.

I desperately want to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy again and see The Hobbit in a theater.  But no one's offering to take my kids for 10 hours so I can watch the trilogy or pay for my gas and ticket to a movie theater.  Are they?  *hint hint*

I hate potty training kids.  Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.


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And the Potty Training Stalls

A random observation that I made the other day...when Princess is standing right in front of me hanging onto my legs, I can no longer see her. I also can no longer tell if my socks match unless I'm sitting down. If they don't match, I really don't even care because it was so much work to put them on that there's no way I'm taking them back off again.

It's been two months since we started potty training. Two verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long months. Every single day I have to rinse poopy underwear out in the toilet. Every day. That strikes me as ironic since that is the very reason I chose not to use cloth diapers.

The reason potty training is still going on is because Princess has yet to achieve the final step. She knows exactly what to do on the potty chair and can usually squeeze at least a few drops out to earn her chocolate chip. But she can't tell when she needs to go potty or poop! Kinda a big thing. When we started potty training, she would tell me as she was peeing her pants and would be pretty upset about getting Elmo wet (her underwear of choice). Now, the only way I catch accidents is if I feel a wet spot on her pants or happen to take her to the bathroom at which time I notice that Elmo is not dry.  Princess  will put on a sad face when I tell her that Elmo is wet, but as soon as I put her in clean underwear, she's all happy and smiles again as she declares "Elmo dry!" The only reason Princess doesn't have more accidents is because I know about when she's going to have to go and can usually take her before she goes in her pants. However, while I can tell she's going to need to go potty again soon because it's been a while, poop just kind of comes whenever so I very rarely catch it before I notice green fumes rising from Princess's backside. How in the world do I get her to realize when she has to go so I'm not taking ALL the responsibility for her body functions?!?!? Any advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated!

When we started potty training (and I use the term "we" loosely because, while Hubby was gungho about training her and still is, I'm the one doing all the actual work), Princess used a potty seat that fit over the regular toilet seat. Pretty nifty since I didn't have to rinse out a potty chair. This worked great until I realized that everytime I took her to the bathroom, I would suddenly have an urge to go as well. For a while I would "dance" around the toilet and beg her to hurry up and do her business so I could have a turn. Then I realized that I did have a potty chair stashed in the closet. Duh. Now we both go in there and get our own toilets.Princess  is thrilled because she gets to go potty with mama and I'm thrilled because I no longer have to worry about peeing my pants while I wait for my two year old to use the toilet. However, this has led her to believe that everytime I use the bathroom, she should be welcomed in the bathroom as well even if she isn't using her potty chair. If I dare to close the door, I have to listen to pounding on the door and plaintive cries of "mama, mama, mama." Recently, Princess has decided to be independent when it comes to going potty and if I try to follow her into the bathroom to give her a hand, she slams the door in my face and tells me, "Go away, mama!" How is this fair? My two year old gets more privacy in the bathroom than I do!

Tum, Tu Tu Tu Tums.

My favorite foods right now.
1. Chocolate
2. Anything with a tomato based sauce
3. Cheese
4. Tums Extra Strength

I have acid reflux disease bad enough that unless I take a daily preventative pill, there is a constant burning in my esophagus. Now, add being pregnant and being taken off my usual medication as it's not safe for pregnant women, to that. Fun times! Tums are my favorite dessert nowadays.

Last Friday (New Years Day to be exact. What a way to start off the new year), I put Princess in underwear and we said goodbye to her diapers. Well, she said "goodbye", I said, "See ya at nap time." She was incredibly thrilled about her Elmo underwear and I stressed how important it was to keep Elmo dry so he wouldn't be sad. Day one was great. She pooped in her underwear in the morning, but that was the only accident. That night as I got ready for bed, I thought about how easy this was going to be. Haha. Day two, she pooped in her underwear once and peed in them 4 times. About 25% of the time, she tells me when she has to go and actually does. Other times, she tells me she has to go, but as soon as I put her on the toilet, she hops off saying, "all done!" The rest of the time, she tells me after the fact by standing in one spot and saying "wet" repeatedly until I tell her to walk to the bathroom, at which point she walks with her legs as far apart as possible without actually falling over.

Is there some magic time when kids just get it and go to the bathroom before peeing in their pants? Or should I put Princess back in diapers until it's time to send her to school? That probably wouldn't go over well as she throws a major fit everytime I put her in a diaper to sleep in. On Sunday, I really didn't want to deal with poopy underwear at church, so I put her in a pull-up. She rebelled by refusing to use the toilet for most of the morning.

So now that Christmas is over, the cardboard boxes have been played with and thrown out, the Christmas cookies are going stale, and the new toys are squeezed in every inch of space there was left in the toy area, I have to start planning birthdays. Hubby's birthday is mid-January, but is almost forgotten in my frantic planning of Princess's party in late-January. Here's a fun bit of trivia: I'll be almost exactly 6 months pregnant on Louise's birthday. The theme for Princess's 2nd birthday is Princess. I'm going to attempt to make her a cake that looks like a castle with the help of ice cream cones. I also made her an adorable pink tutu out of tulle to wear for her party which she is terrified of and refuses to put on. Maybe the promise of presents will help persuade her. :)

Unsolicited Advice:
If at all possible, find someone else to take your child home with them to potty train. Way less mess for you.

Update On the Potty Training

A few posts ago, I wrote that we are beginning to potty train Princess. Here's an update on the process.

We are taking the relaxed approach to potty training since Princess is still so young. Periodically, I put her on the toilet and if she goes, she gets a few M&Ms. She prefers using a potty seat on the toilet to using the really cool potty chair I got her, but I'm okay with that because that means we don't have to carry a potty chair with us everywhere. 6 days after we started potty training, a lightbulb went on in her head and she realized that she could actually make herself go potty when she was on the toilet. This is great and means that she's aware of what she's supposed to be doing. Just last week, she also realized that going potty meant she got M&Ms. I had gotten her up from bed and she still had her pacifier in her mouth when I put her on the toilet. She peed in the toilet, handed me her pacifier and opened her mouth expectantly.

The next thing she needs to master in the potty training adventure is learning how to tell when she has to go and holding it until she can get to the toilet. No luck with this yet, but eventually I think it will just click and she'll figure it out. Several people told me that the reason she hadn't picked up on this yet was because I still had her in diapers instead of putting her in regular underwear. So I found some training underwear (training underwear is more expensive than MY underwear! Talk about ridiculous!) and made a big deal of showing them to her and telling her that she was a big girl because she could wear them instead of diapers. She seized the flowered underwear from my hand and vigorously smelled the flowers. I wrestled the underwear out of her hand and explained to her that yes, we do smell flowers, but we don't smell underwear. After ceremoniously tossing the diaper she was wearing while emphasizing that diapers are for babies, I put her in the underwear and let her loose to play. Princess played happily at the kitchen table while I washed dishes. Perhaps running water wasn't the best background noise. Before long, she came over to me asking if she could wash her hands as she always does when I have the water running. I picked her up and was rewarded with a wet shirt. She gave me a blank look as I told her how disappointed I was that she had gone potty in her big girl underwear. She didn't notice the wet underwear at all and wasn't fazed to be walking around that way. I figured that the first time wasn't that big of a deal and she'd get it. A day and 4 accidents later, I switched her back to diapers. She obviously didn't care if she was wet or not and I would usually realize she was wet only when I picked her up.

So for now, I will keep doing what I have been doing, but I don't have unrealistic expectations. We're laying the groundwork for the serious potty training which will probably occur after she turns two. If nothing else, I'm saving a few diapers this way.

Unsolicited Advice:
When starting potty training, it can be hard to convince your active child to stay put on the potty chair long enough for the potty training to work. I solved this problem by keeping a small basket in the bathroom stocked with special books and toys that Louise only gets to play with when she's sitting on the toilet.

Do You Have to go Potty?

As of Monday, August 3rd, we are officially potty training Princess. She is 18 months old and obviously aware of her bodily functions. So, I've swallowed my apprehension and let my landlady know that I will be using the washing machine a little more frequently for a while.

When Princess was still a tiny baby, my sister-in-law told me that she started putting her son on the potty chair before he was six months old and by the time he was two and a half, he was completely potty trained. Without realizing that this particular technique required a parent to potty train their child for at least two years before claiming success, I trotted on over to Babies R' Us and purchased a Baby Bjorn infant potty chair. When I got home, I stripped Princess down to her onesie and set her on the potty chair. She thought it was great fun and obliged me by peeing in her potty chair. I was thrilled and began imagining not having diapers on my grocery bill in a few short months. Then reality set in. My sister wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I was and, although she promised to put Princess on the potty chair throughout the day while I was at work, I knew she would forget. Before long, I was tired of having to unsnap onesies, remove diapers, and hold Princess on the potty chair countless times a day, especially when it became clear that when she peed in the potty chair the first time I put her on it, she had done it to give me a false sense of security. So I put the Baby Bjorn in the closet and reminded myself how much I loved changing diapers.

Now at 18 months of age, it's time to begin potty training Princess again. I'm not going to stress about it though; if she's not getting the idea after a few weeks, we'll take a break and try it again when she gets older. When she woke up on Monday morning, I put Princess on her potty chair and she let loose with a stream of you-know-what. I praised her as if she had just been elected President of the United States and rewarded her with a blue M&M. Then I took her off the potty chair to show her her accomplishment. She was very proud of herself and decided to celebrate by swishing her hands in her handiwork. I decided that that would be a good time to show her how to wash her hands. After that, we ceremoniously flushed the contents of the potty chair down the toilet.

Because disposable diapers are so absorbent (which is a quality I've always appreciated about them), I borrowed some cloth diapers from my sister to use during the early days (or weeks or months) of potty training so that Princess can actually feel when she is wet and hopefully develop an aversion to that sensation. I still plan on using disposables during naptime and bedtime. I'm not quite ready to tackle nighttime training yet. On that subject however, I was pleasantly surprised when I woke Princess this morning. I took her diaper off and found it completely dry. This has happened before and I'm aware that, unless she had a lot to drink shortly before bed, she doesn't fill her diaper until the morning hours. I'm hoping that this is an indication that nighttime potty training will be a breeze.

My plan for potty training is that Princess will be completely potty trained in a few weeks (cue snickers of disbelief from more experienced parents). She hasn't said anything about it yet, but I have a feeling that Princess may not have the same plan. I'm hoping we can compromise and come up with a workable solution.

Unsolicited Advice:
I know I should probably give some advice about potty training since it would go well with this post, but I'd rather receive advice about that subject at this point.