The interesting thing about potty training is that you are essentially telling your child to do the exact opposite of what they have been doing for the past 2 years.
No, do not pee on yourself.
I can just picture my child's thoughts "But I just did that yesterday and that was perfectly okay with you. Why is it suddenly not okay today?"
Because now you are a big boy and big boys use the potty (and to be perfectly frank, mommy is kinda sick of changing diapers).
So with this somewhat crazy notion of breaking with the norm, we attempted the potty training process last night (armed with a reward chart, stickers, chocolate and hot wheels of course). With the method we are using, we basically set a timer to a desired amount of minutes and when it goes off it is Potty Time!! (kinda like party time except with pee) If he pees on the potty, he gets a reward. If not, we reset the timer and try again.
Before beginning, I put Isaac on my lap and said "Isaac, today we are going to learn how to use the potty." I explained how this process was supposed to work. I showed him the reward chart, along with the prizes for peeing. I let him choose his first pair of underwear. I set the timer for 10 minutes. And I said "Now remember, we pee in the potty, not our underwear." And within five minutes...
He'd peed in his underwear.
Accident #1.
Okay, regroup team.
New underwear. New pants. Reset the timer. Repeat the reminder. And 2 minutes later...
Accident #2.
Followed very closely by Accidents #3, #4 and #5. It seems our son is a master at not only holding onto his pee and letting it out little by little but also waiting until he is off the potty and back in his underwear before doing it!
Okay new plan! Time to bring out the big guns! Insert 'Cars' movie into the Blu-ray player, load Isaac up with liquids, plunk him on the potty and let nature do the rest! And...
SUCCESS!
Isaac makes his first pee on the potty - crowd goes wild!! His trophy: a sticker, a piece of chocolate and his choice of hot wheels car. High fives all around!
Funny thing is, with all the jumping around and excitement, I realized that my half-naked little man was still leaking drips all over the floor - so daddy rushes him back to the potty and says 'Okay Isaac just let it all come out' and sure enough within minutes, our little guy has accomplished his second pee on the potty! More stickers, more chocolate - tons of excitement!
Time to call it a night - literally. And since this is a new thing for all of us, we have no qualms about putting a diaper back on him for the night. We'll start the whole thing again in the morning...yippee.
Day #2
Once again we arm ourselves with underwear, pants, stickers, chocolate and hot wheels. Once again, I explain the process, this time with extra emphasis on the part where we pee in the potty, not our underwear. We plunk him on the potty, we wait...nothing.
Okay, maybe he just doesn't have to pee right now. No problem. Put just underwear on him, not pants. Set the timer for 10 minutes and we'll try again.
Well after escaping the potty our little monkey decides to sneak off to the dining room, where he promptly unloads his bladder.
Ugh.
Scrap the underwear. Maybe he's just too comfortable going pee when he's wearing something (regardless if it is a diaper or underwear).
At this point in time, I put daddy on watch and go change into my workout clothes for my 'date' with Jillian Michaels. We're going to be working on my trouble zones today...yippee. When I come down I turn on the blu-ray player, forgetting of course that the 'Cars' movie is still in there from last night. Sure enough it starts to play and Isaac, without any prompting goes and sits on his potty.
Hmmm...this could be good. Sorry Jillian, we're going to have to postpone our date (I'm sure you can sense my disappointment), some things just take precedence.
1 hour later...we have pee in the potty! Woot woot! (picture me doing my version of a touchdown celebration)
Of course, I shouldn't get too excited...after all he's only managed to pee in the potty 3 times and peeing is only half the battle. Still, for now, I will take these small accomplishments! I'll keep you posted on how the rest of it goes.
Oh and for the record, I did resume my 'date' with Jillian while Isaac was sleeping and one of us is not happy about it.
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