This is Lane with his really really FULL sticker chart. Each sticker represents a successful pee or poop in the potty. This was on Saturday or Sunday -now we have started a whole new sheet. Oh and the other picture is of the PAW PATROL. Lane has become obsessed with this show...that and Peter Rabbit
Since potty training he has decided to sleep in his big boy bed and not his crib. He looks so big to me now.
For some time now Lane has shown lots of interest in using
the potty-he enjoyed watching all of us use the bathroom (especially Grant) and
talked about "pee" and "poop" quite a bit. So, Jason and I
decided that we needed to cease the moment and just take the plunge and start
potty training. So we marked the calendar -being careful to choose three days
that we didn't have anything scheduled-nowhere to go and nothing to do. We then
started to talk about it ALOT. We watched a potty training movie with Lane and
told him that soon we were going to have a POTTY PARTY! I told him that this
"party" would be tons of fun and that we would have juice, chips,(we
don't normally keep juice or chips in stock at
our house so this was enticing to him) and lots of snacks. I told him
that we would have balloons and we would spend lots of time playing, reading
books and most importantly learning to use the potty.
So we planted the seed and marked the calendar. Then we made
a PLAN. All things are so much
better with a well thought out, well constructed plan. Since I have done this before with Grant I
felt confident in my ability to properly train Lane. I figured since the method
we used with Grant proved to be pretty successful I would just go with the same
method with Lane. The method I am referring to is the POTTY TRAINING IN THREE DAYS method. I refreshed my memory a bit by researching it
on the web and pinterest and all of the details quickly came flooding back into
my memory. So, I had my plan now I
needed my LIST. You who know me well -know that I LOVE LISTS!!!
My Potty Training List consisted of the following:
books about potty
training-we had a couple here but new ones are always fun so we checked
some out at the library
candy (lots and
lots of candy of all variety)
stickers
potty training
sticker chart
"big boy
underwear"-I bought the 5 pack of Thomas the Train
pull-ups (*ONLY
FOR NAPS AND NIGHT)
poop prizes (I
bought a bunch of $1 things from the dollar store-play dough, bouncy balls, and
other random things)
Potty chair- we
already had ours out and in the bathroom for months so I didn't need to do
anything here
balloons- to make
it look like a party
juice and fun snacks-
juice is very very important- or at least lots and lots of fluids of some sort
(added to this list of things needed to potty train- PRAYERS!!! I prayed on it a lot. I
asked our Father to help me be the best mother and teacher I could be during
this season and I asked him to be with Lane to calm his fears help with any
anxieties he may have. I asked for the ability to remain calm and not get upset
when accidents occurred (IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO NOT GET UPSET OR FRUSTRATED
ABOUT ACCIDENTS) and asked him to allow me to totally free my schedule and give
me the ability to give all of my time and attention to Lane).
We got everything on the list- this party started early as I
wasn't planning on having it until Saturday but Lane had other plans....he
decided he wanted to try to start potty training on Friday night- so I rolled
with it. We took out all of the things on the list and we took out a big ole
trash bag. We threw the diapers up in the air and yelled, "no more
diapers!" He loved doing this and I bet we did it about thirty times. He
then helped me fill the trash bag with the diapers and I explained to him that
from now on he was a big boy and didn't need diapers anymore because we were
going to learn to put our pee and poop in the potty. He was very receptive to this and started
right away- he sat on the potty and went !!! Now I will add that I did not
leave his side for three days straight. Like literally right by his side all
day every day. We played we read...he came with me everywhere I went and so did
his potty chair. This is a must when potty training because then you can be
there to watch and catch any cues he may be giving that he has to go. For a
while you just watch and see-does he do a pee pee dance and squirm around or
get that look on his face that indicants something is about to happen. I figured
every half hour or forty minutes I would ask him if he had to go and reminded
him to go on the potty. He went three
times in the potty and went once on the floor that night. That night we put him
in a pull up and told him how special pull ups were but that we could only wear
them at nap time and night time. All other times he would be naked from the
waist down. YEP I SAID NAKED!!! All weekend long and into Monday we let him go
without pants and underwear. He was so successful with this it almost amazed
me. Saturday he had two accidents but did poop in the potty and Sunday he went
all day long with no accidents!!!!! Things were looking so good....until we
decided that he couldn't just run around naked as a jaybird in front of the
daycare kiddos and put big boy undies on him. This took some getting used
to-right out of the gate he peed in them three times in a row. I think this was mostly because he couldn't
quite figure out how to get his underwear down by himself. Prior to underwear
he would like to run to the other room and go potty by himself and then come
show us that he went. Now that he was in underwear and couldn't get them down
by himself he couldn't do it privately and independently like he was doing
before. So we worked on practicing getting our undies down by himself and we
talked about how until he learns to get them to come down by himself that he
would need to tell me when he has to go potty so I can help him get his pants
down. This has seemed to work well. From the beginning we took the potty with
us wherever we went...if we were in the playroom playing- the potty came with
us. If we were in the living room reading books- the potty came with us. If we
were in the kitchen - so was the potty. We are STILL doing this at least until
he gets everything down pat. And from the beginning we gave him a sticker and
candy for every time he peed on the potty. His candy of choice are dinner mints
or heresy kisses. If he poops on the potty he gets two stickers, candy and a "poop prize." He seemed so
uninterested in his "poop prizes" so that either means I picked out
crappy (no pun intended) "poop prizes" or he just could care less
about prizes because he loves CANDY so much. He is most proud of himself when
he goes poop in the potty-today it literally took me ten minutes to convince
him to flush his poop. He kept saying, "keep this one, my like it" or
"looks like a snowman Mommy- keep this one," "no flush him"
"take picture of my snowman." Oh my!! I finally told him that his
"snowman" (poop) wanted to go swimming-this worked and he agreed to
flush him. From the beginning we always
let him empty the potty and flush it good bye-he seems to love doing this step
so we let him- even though it's a scary thing to let a two year old who is
still mastering coordination to be in charge of a bowl full of pee and trust
him to WALK to the toilet to flush it and not to RUN. Two year olds are funny little
people...yesterday he threw a holy fit because he didn't want to take his pull
up off after he had woken up that morning. I threw it away and told him that it
was time to put on his big boy undies. He cried and begged to have him pull up
back. I DIDN'T GIVE IN! Jason and Grant on the other hand were caving and
caving fast. They both were trying to convince me to just give him a new pull
up! NO! NO! NO! When you are trying to teach anyone anything the key to it all
(in my opinion) is CONSISTENCY! We told him pull ups are for naps and night and
it was clearly morning...what a way to send mix messages and confuse the hell
out of him than to give him a fresh pull up at 6 am. NOPE , this Mama wasn't
having it. I remained calm and composed and explained over and over that pull
ups are for nap and night and big boy undies are for daytime. I told him that
he could have a pull up if he agreed to go back to bed. He quickly declined
that offer! HA! But then what does he do that same evening? Threw a fit about
having to put a pull up on at night time- he wanted to wear his big boy undies
to bed. Oh my gosh he just couldn't make up his mind I guess....but again, I
stood firm and didn't give in and we went to bed with a pull up on. He got over
his little fit within a few minutes so really if you are in this situation
ever please please please just DON'T GIVE IN!!!! I think it could be one of
the biggest most damaging thing a parent could do during potty training. If you
are going to potty train-decide that is what you are doing and don't look back
(unless it is clear that your child isn't ready or isn't getting it) because
then it would be like un-doing everything you accomplished the past few days.
He has been overall very successful-there has been a day or two that he has
had more accidents but that's going to happen. This is all new to him and he's
still trying to get it all figured out. I
think we are well on our way. I 'll keep ya posted. And if you are one of those parents out there
thinking about or in the middle of potty training- HANG IN THERE. A week of
what seems like a big pain the butt is going to be so worth it in the long
run. I think I read somewhere that after
your child is potty trained you save nearly $700 a year. And just think- no
more diapers or big ole diaper bags to lug around. Ahhhh! Sounds nice right?
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