Potty Training

When Alex started his Mother's Day Out program last fall, his teacher began working with him on going to the potty. When he was with her, she would take him to the bathroom and have him try to go. If he did, great. If not, that was ok, too. She just wanted to get the children into the routine.

A short time after she told me that he had his first success, I decided to try it at home - usually before bath time or when he got up in the morning. He would go when we'd take him, but I wasn't very consistent day in and day out. To be honest, I just wasn't up for the task. It seemed like such a beating to me, especially in the days when Roo was getting up once or twice a night.

A few months ago, I tried putting him in big boy underwear on the days we were staying home. We could make it with no (pee-pee) accidents, as long as I would set the timer and drag him to the toilet every 45 minutes. I got so tired of trying to stay on top of that while keeping up with a newly mobile infant. We never got to the point where he asked to go, so I decided to put it on hold for a bit longer.

I had attempted a handful of times to tackle poo-pooing in the potty. I know the signs when he's got to go – he quietly slips into the office and closes the french doors for his privacy. I would try to catch him before he started his business, and we would race to the potty. He wanted nothing to do with it. I even bought an incentive – the monster trucks from Mater's Tall Tales. We've had it sitting on the back of the potty for weeks now, but it wasn't enough to motivate him to do it.

I decided not to push it and just see how things would go. I figured this summer would be a good time to start up again because he would be turning three and maybe he would show more signs of being ready. Turns out, I didn't have to wait that long.

This past Saturday, we loaded up for a weekend trip to the North Carolina Zoo with some friends of ours and their kiddos. Two of their children are potty trained. Alex must have been paying attention because at the hotel Saturday night he told me he needed to pee-pee. This is the first time he had ever told us he needed to go. I said ok, but then kind of dismissed it. So he heads into the bathroom, takes his shorts and diaper off, throws his diaper in the trash, climbs up on the potty and does his business, flushes the toilet, and is attempting to put his shorts back on when I find him. I. was. amazed. Seriously.

Sunday rolls around, and once again – at a restaurant this time – he tells us he needs to go. Jerry takes him, and sure enough, success. Then we get home that afternoon, and he has taken all of his clothes off to put his swimsuit on. While he's naked he runs to tell me, "I need to poo-poo! I don't want to do it on the floor!" So I run to take him to the bathroom, and what do you know?! HE WAS SO PROUD! I was screaming and cheering and giving him high-fives. You'd have thought we won the lottery. It was a big day!

Afterwards, he kept saying to me, "Mommy, I'm so excited about my monster trucks." So sweet.

Now that he's showing a real interest, we are in full-on potty training mode, and he is doing great. I feel motivated and encouraged to keep it moving along now that I see he's able to identify when he needs to go. I'm still a little nervous about our first outing, but I know that we'll just have to make pit-stops right before we leave the house and right before we leave the store. We still do diapers at nap time and night time until I can see that he's waking up dry. While I'm in no rush, I will be excited when we're down to only buying one set of diapers again. =)