Monday, March 24, 2008: Potty Training officially began.
I saw that the weather forecast was predicting nice warm weather at the end of the week and I decided to use my last known cold weather week to make me feel justified in remaining cooped up inside all day.
Without bothering to dress my son.
And feeding him cookies and chocolate under no sense of private shame.
We started Monday; I let him jump, urine-soaked, on a trampoline on Tuesday (when we babysat for my friend and I couldn't drag him off to do his business); and he did have another accident (urine only) that Sunday at church (for which I blame his father for blindly following our 2 year old's lead on whether or not he had to go rather than my instruction that he did) and then we were done. I will skip all the fun and interesting stories and simply say that Andrew is completely trustworthy in his soccer ball underwear.
In an interesting insight into Andrew's personality, on the few occassions when we had a mishap (a far too high potty with no stool during Emma's birthday party and a fiercely independent boy who refused to notify either parent of his bathroom needs), he was very hard on himself. Worse, even, than when he misses a shot at his little basketball hoop. "I missed!" he shrieked angrily. "I made a mistake! Put a diaper back on me!" He demanded this in shame. It was sad and fascinating. I was sort of proud of him for his determination and pride. I told him that we all make potty mistakes sometimes. I knew that it would evenatually come in handy that I had an accident in my 5th grade classroom. No such thing as an accident, right? ha. Luke's humiliation at an emergency room recently also helped assauge Andrew's self-loathing. He listened to these examples and seemed to feel a lot better.
Another interesting insight into Andrew's psyche was that he then felt the need to confess his failure to Emma. "I almost made it, but I missed, Emma!" Another thing my son has in common with his mom. (The first being the sweet tooth).
So, Andrew, for future reference, this is how we got you potty trained:
1. Naked from the waist down.
2. Homebound
3. Bribes: Reeses Pieces and hersey kisses (didn't spoil your appetite, but got you motivated)
4. Praise: We would cheer hysterically, dementedly (we = me)
5. Appealing to your sense of PRIDE: telling you about all the big kids who use the potty and then asking them to tell you about it and their lack of diapers.
You inform all around you of your new skill. You treated the missionaries to a full regale of your abilities and your undergarments during a dinner at Nana and Papa's house.
And every time you race for the potty, I feel a big sense of accomplishment, too.
7 comments:
I love the picture. I know I said it already, but congrats to both of you. Not having to spend money on diapers for more than one child at a time is the best.
Brig insisted that I remove the photo of Andrew.
wow! Congrats! Andrew is just barely two and a half, right? That's really awesome.
I'm really hoping James catches the spirit of potty training like Andrew has. Why does my boy not have any sense of shame?
Thanks for posting what you did to potty train. People have made it sound too easy, without details of how the cajoling worked. So thank you. And I appreciate your comment in the most recent post about how everyone is better looking in real life than in your pictures. Couldn't we just attach that to all pictures? It ought to be tacit, but you still worry that people will think your kid is a seven when he'll always be a ten:).
Congratulations! Tell Andrew that Momo is very, very proud of him! Love
I'm glad you posted this so I can look back and have ideas for when we go through potty training. I am very impressed with Andrew. He has such a big personality! We miss him!
Post a Comment