Potty Time

We decided to potty train Luke the week after Christmas.  Actually, we started the day after Christmas.  We set up camp in the kitchen ... complete with an Elmo potty book, a stack of underwear and a giant bag of M&Ms.  (Chocolate is Luke's love language.)

 

As we did with Claire and David, we went with the "cold turkey" method of potty training found in this e-book.  I don't even have my copy of the book anymore I've loaned it out so much.  But I pretty much remembered the drill.  I did not remember, however, all the pee-pee I would have to clean up.  Luke had a lot of accidents that first day! 

 

 

We pretty much hung out in the kitchen for the day to avoid cleaning up any accidents from the carpet.  Luke actually went pee-pee on me twice that day while sitting in my lap.  Thanks dude!

And one month later, that little potty is still sitting in my kitchen!  (The dirty laundry in the background is not.)

 

{I did a little photo editing so as to not expose any private parts.}

 

Luke had a lot of accidents that first day.  And he did not love sitting on the potty (even for a treat).  Day 2 was a little better.  Still a few accidents, but more control.  Day 3 was better.  He had pretty much stopped having accidents at that point, but still wasn't really good about telling us when he had to go potty.  Day 4 and 5, it really started to click.  He went back to preschool on January 7th (12 days after we started potty training) and other than a few accidents with aim on the potty, he has done really well.  Our next big hurdle is using public restrooms.  We've still got quite a ways to go!!

 

Oh my cuteness!  Look at his little bottom in that BIG BOY underwear. 

 

 

As much as I would love to add a 4th child to our brood, I could not potty train a 4th.  This really did me in.  And I feel like we have moved on to a new phase in life ... a phase where no one is wearing diapers.  (Both boys still wear a pull-up at night .. David may still be wearing one when he goes to college at the rate he is going.)

 

The Elmo book was a big hit on the potty.  Lots of "potty" songs included.  A perfect Christmas gift from the grandparents.  He would ask for it when he sat on the potty.

 

 

My friend Emily was potty training her 2-year-old shortly after we started potty training Luke.  She read the same e-book we did.  She wrote an excellent blog post on potty training if you would like some encouraging words before you get started!

June 15

Yesterday was an eventful day in our little world. Let me explain with a list!

(1) Will's company laid off 28% of its employees yesterday. We have known this day was coming for about 6 weeks now and we both really felt at peace about whatever happened. But, as the date approached, we both became much more apprehensive and starting having doubts. Will was supposed to get the call from his boss between 9-9:30 yesterday morning and I was taking Claire to preschool and driving to work during this time. I was about to hypervenhilate in the car!

Well, Will called me at 9:28 and both he and his business partner Chris got to keep their jobs. We were both crying on the phone! Once we finally learned the outcome, we were overcome with emotion.

Both of us had really tried to pray for God's will in this situation. Of course, the comfortable, easy thing would have been for Will to keep his job (especially since we are about to have our 3rd child), but we also knew that if Will lost his job, God would take care of us. He would have bigger and better things in store for us. We were confident in this ... until about 9am yesterday morning. Satan can really use doubt and fear to draw us away from God.

One of Will's favorite versus that he clung to through this ordeal was this ... I Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

A verse that really spoke to me during all this was from Habakkuk 3:16-18: "Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior." (One of our pastors preached a wonderful sermon about this a few weeks ago, which was very timely for our situation ... God's timing is always perfect.)

We are both relieved and thankful that Will kept his job. But I am also confident that God will always take care of us no matter what our worldly circumstances may be. I am also thankful that we had this opportunity to grow closer to God.

(2) Our dear friends Laura and Courtney welcomed their sweet baby boy Coston into the world yesterday morning.

Here is their family of four, ready to grow to five.

The newest member of the clan ... Coston Heath. That hand sure looks yummy!

I nabbed these pictures off Courtney's FB account. We are so excited to meet baby Coston in person and so excited for this sweet family! Congrats!!

(3) We had some setbacks in the potty training department yesterday. I'll spare you the details, but there were a couple of big accidents in the morning. Fortunately Will (and not me) was home to clean up. After nap, there seemed to be a turn for the better and David was accident free until bedtime. He even used the potty 3-4 times. We'll see how today goes with the sitter!

Potty Training: Day 3

Success!!!! Today was a good day. I was home by myself with the kids all day. And we had to make an outing to the YMCA for Claire's swim lesson this afternoon.

David has now figured out that he is not supposed to tee-tee in his underwear. And he can hold it for a good long while. He still just doesn't love going on the potty. He will do it though. Especially if it means he gets to flush the potty when he is finished.

When we potty trained Claire, she was at about the same place on Day 3. She had stopped having accidents at that point, but still wouldn't voluntarily go unless you just sat her on the potty and made her. (Or filled her so full of fluid that she just had to let it out.) It was really on Day 6 that she realized ... hey, Mommy is giving me a Hershey Kiss every time I use the potty ... I'm going to go every 5 minutes and eat a whole bag of chocolate. (After that day, we revised our reward system.)

I have gotten really frustrated with this boy over the past few days. But he is just so sweet and he constantly reminds me of that. Like yesterday, he was playing with Claire's stuffed Mickey Mouse (which he has now claimed as his own) and he was putting Mickey on the little potty and giving him milk to drink from his sippy cup. Then, today, he went a got a sucker from the bowl on the kitchen counter and brought it in to show me. I told him that he could not have a sucker unless he put more tee-tee in the potty. He kind of put his head down and ran off and I got up to chase him. He was running back into the kitchen to put the sucker back in the bowl just like I told him to.

Will gets to stay home with David tomorrow. He is off tomorrow anyway. Hopefully, after that, we can go back to our regular routine, diaper free.

And I promise not to write anymore potty talk.

Day 3 tally: accidents (1); tee-tee in potty (5); poo-poo in potty (1); dry pull-up at YMCA (1).

Potty Training: Day 2

Today was a long day. Especially since Will and Claire went to church and I got to stay home with the trainee.

But, we did make progress today. I think after one more day, it is all going to click. I am going to stay home from work with him tomorrow rather than subjecting our sitter to this torture.

When I was fixing dinner tonight, David actually walked in the kitchen and told me he had to tee-tee. We sat him on the potty and he did it!! The first time all day. Then, he went again during dinner ... in the potty of course.

We had a few accidents today, but only small ones. Like he would start then stop then realize he wasn't supposed to tee-tee in his underwear. But, of course, then we would sit him on the potty and he wouldn't do anything. He seems to have issues releasing it into the potty. Why is that so scary for kids?

He has caught on to a few things though. When he wants to get up from the table, before everyone else is finished eating, he tells us he has to tee-tee (even though he really doesn't). And, he will go sit on the potty 20 times a day and not do anything to get a piece of candy for "trying". He is a smart little booger!

Day 2 tally: accidents (4); tee-tee in potty (3); poo-poo in the potty (0).

Potty Training Boot Camp

David has been sequestered to the house for the weekend. We started potty training yesterday. Here is all the loot we bought to bribe him to use the potty. He will do almost anything for a Dum-Dum sucker. He can also be easily bribed to drink almost anything from a fast food restaurant cup.

We pulled Claire's old potty out of storage and cleaned it up. Unfortunately, the sensor doesn't seem to work to make it play when you actually tee-tee in the potty. That was always a big thrill for Claire. We did manage to locate the boy tee-tee guard.

His first introduction to the potty. Not so thrilled as you can see. He was a big fan of the "Queen" (Lightning McQueen) underwear.

Although, they are a little large. Hopefully, they will shrink some in the wash.

I think he just noticed the suckers on the counter.

Maybe this potty thing isn't so bad after all if I get a sucker while I "try". Those suckers on the floor didn't last for long. I had to move them up to higher ground.

Sadly, we didn't actually get any tee-tee in the potty until about 5pm. He had about 6 accidents between 9am and lunch. We put a pull-up on for nap and he tee-tee'd in the pull-up about 5 seconds after we put it on him. (Our potty training book recommends no pull-ups ever, but I'm 6 months pregnant and will not spend every waking moment changing and washing sheets, nor can I lose my precious sleep over this at night.)

After our 5pm success, David had one more accident when he was outside with Will. (That is the only time all day he left the house.) He held it until bath time. A couple of minutes into the bath, he said he had to potty and will put him on the big potty and he finally (after much screaming and straining), he went #1 and #2 in the potty. He was very proud of himself. And he got to pick out a new toy car.

Day #1 tally: accidents (6-8); tee-tee in potty (2); poo-poo in potty (1).

Hopefully, we will have better success on Day #2. I have to go back to work tomorrow and David goes back to preschool on Tuesday. We need this to click today!

We may be potty training soon ...

and here's why:

(1) David loves to take his clothes off, especially his pants.

(2) I have come into David's room after nap on more than one occasion and he has taken his diaper off. Once he had tee-tee'd (is that even a word?) all over the bed.

(3) David has recently tee-tee'd in the bathtub on several occasions, which wouldn't be that bad if Claire wasn't in there with him.

(4) David tells me that he is "stinky" almost every time he goes #2. In fact, last week, he came into the kitchen with his wipes and diaper bag and began to take his diaper off. If I hadn't stopped him, he probably would have tried to change his own diaper. I did stop him and asked him what he was doing and he said "I stinky."

(5) He loves to try and sit on the potty, especially when he see Claire or me going to the bathroom.

Here's why I might wait to potty train David, even though he is CLEARLY ready:

(1) He almost never goes #2 while he is awake. Almost all of his stinky diapers occur during nap time or nighttime and we change him when he wakes up. This will clearly cause some problems with potty training to go #2, which I have heard is much harder for boys than girls.

(2) He just turned 2 this month. Most boys do better potty training if you wait until they are closer to 3.

(3) Timing. I will not be on maternity leave until September. (I potty trained Claire while I was on maternity leave with David.) In fact, we only have a two week break between the end of preschool and the beginning of the kids' summer program when we could get the potty training done. We have a month off in August, but I think that is too close to when the new baby is due. Oh, and I will be working during both of these breaks from school.

We potty trained Claire easy-breezy in about 5 days. She had really showed no interest at all before we started. I don't think she had even sat on the potty before. We stayed at home and armed ourselves with lots of character pa*nties and stayed in the kitchen on the tile floor. We bought lots of candy and a kid potty that makes music when you tinkle. And it worked.

Hopefully, David's training will go the same way, but I know it is different for boys. If I knew it would only take 5-10 days, I would be all geared up to go mid-May, but I don't know that with him. But he is definitely ready. And if I don't do it in May or June, I probably need to wait until November or December when we get settled in with the new baby. Who knows how many times that diaper may come off before then?!?

Any thoughts, opinions or advice? It would be VERY nice to only buy diapers for one come the fall ...

Where does she come up with this stuff?

I just had to post this photo of Claire on the potty from earlier this week. On this particular day, Claire told me she needed to go "poo poo" so we hurried to the potty and got situated on her "airplane potty". (That is what she calls the little potty seat that goes over the big potty so she won't fall in. My niece Evie came up with this name because it does sort of look like an airplane with the handles as wings and the raised part in the back as the tail.) She then pointed behind me and told me that she wanted a book from the magazine basket in the bathroom.

I am just wondering where she got the idea to read a book on the potty. I mean, I have never ever done this before (chuckle, chuckle). It amazes me daily, the little things that she picks up on. The good, the bad and the ugly. In mean, everyone needs their daily dose of Sudoku.

(My mom has an equally embarrassing photo of me reading a book to my big stuffed snoopy dog who I had sat on the potty when I was about 3-4 years old. This will be a good photo to use on her high school graduation or wedding rehearsal dinner video.)