Potty Training

I bought your first potty chair about a year ago, and every few months would give potty-training a big of a go for a couple days.  It was always very casual and I didn't expect much, but I just would pick times when I had at least a few hours at a time for a couple days in a row to work on it and see what happened.  I'm glad I did, because it seemed like each time your potty awareness grew a little bit with certain skills, which I think really helped to make this official round of potty training go so well.  

You first peed in a potty chair right before you turned 2, which I was excited about but didn't want to pursue since we were going to NY in a couple weeks.  After we got back, I wanted to try again but it just seemed like it was never the right time.  If we ever sat you on the toilet and encouraged you to pee, you would, but you would never ask to do so on your own so I didn't push it.  

In the fall, diaper changes were becoming a horrible experience for everyone (usually involving a fair amount of bribes, threats, and sometimes tears).  I decided that we should try really hard over Christmas break when Daddy would be home to help and see if we couldn't convince you to be potty trained.  Then a couple weeks before Christmas we were surprised to find out I was pregnant, and I was so sick that I gave up all thoughts of potty training because I knew I would have to wait until I felt well enough to commit.

That time finally came this March!  I finally stopped being so sick around the middle of March, a couple weeks after we moved into our new house.  Toward the end of March we had been in our house for 4 weeks and I felt like you were doing really well with the transition.  I had 5 full days off of work in a row including a weekend (which was a miracle. . work was crazy this winter) so I decided we would commit hard-core for those 5 days and see what happened.  I still wasn't convinced this would be "it" because it didn't seem like any of the other kids your age were potty trained, and everyone kept telling me boys potty trained later than girls anyway, but diaper changes were awful still and I didn't want to have 2 kids in diapers if I could possibly help it, so I decided to really try!

I used a lot of the tips from the book "Pottywise" (part of the Babywise series, which worked perfectly for us).  For the couple days beforehand I told you about how soon you would only go potty in the toilet.  I took you to Walmart and let you pick out a bunch of candy but wouldn't let you have any yet because they were our special potty treats.  I also picked out some little toys and books and wrapped them up to be special "poop presents."  We started March 26th.  When you woke up in the morning, I took your diaper off and told you that you would only go potty in the toilet now because you were a big boy.  I took you into the bathroom and sat you on the potty and told you to pee, which you did.  Then I let you pick a potty treat from the jar I had put them in.  Well, you were very interested in that!  I told you that we only go potty on the toilet now and that every time you did, you could get a treat.  Then I let you be nakie-bum for the rest of the day since in the past you were more likely to have an accident if you were wearing undies.  I let you have plenty of juice and snacks.  For the first couple hours I would remind you every half hour to go potty.  You got tired of that pretty fast so we would make deals like "I'm going to set the timer and when it dings, you go potty"  Thankfully, it only took one accident for you to "see the light" as it were - you started to pee in the toyroom and immediately said "uh oh!  I go pee-pee!"  I rushed you to the bathroom and sat you on the toilet and you finished in there.  We talked about how you had an accident and how we should only go in the toilet.  And that was that!  You didn't have any accidents the rest of the day!  You still required quite a bit of encouraging to stop playing and go potty, but overall I was amazed at how well you were doing.  You even told me a couple times that you needed to go without me reminding you first.  

Starting Day 2, I put you in undies.  Same as the first day, you only had one accident where you started to pee but caught yourself and ran to the bathroom exclaiming "uh oh!" the whole way.  

Day 6 was a big one.  I was (and still am) putting you in diapers for bedtime, and every couple days you'd wake up with a poopy diaper.  I had known of other little kids in our old ward that took a couple months to poop in the potty, so I wasn't terribly concerned yet.  But today was the big day!  You were VERY aware of the fact that there was a bag of presents sitting on top of the fridge that were waiting for this special occasion, so as soon as you finished you proudly announced "I poop on the potty and now I get a present!"

Check out the excitement in your eyes at unwrapping a filled Easter egg!

About an hour later, you pooped again and got another present - a Superman Pez dispenser.  You were in heaven that night.

Ever since then, things have really gone pretty smoothly!  You haven't had any real accidents since then.  I put you in Pull-ups for your naps and diapers for nighttime and even then you usually wake up dry.  You still refuse to pee on strange toilets, but slowly you are becoming more courageous.  You've had successful potty runs at Grammy, Rachel, and Kav's houses.  Other than that I just have to make sure not to take you out for more than a couple hours at a time in case you need to pee, but since Grammy and Rachel are your main babysitting houses this hasn't presented too much of a problem.  And the best part?  You don't use the potty chair.  You just use a stool and climb onto the toilet.  So no clean up for me!

Or maybe the best part is all the fun undies. . . .you have all the Justice League and Pixar characters.

I'm sure proud of you Bennett!  Potty trained in just a week, and at 2 1/2 years old.  Yay!!