Here we go... take a deep breath with me.
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| Note: this is NOT a potty. It is Andy's BUMPO. Cal likes to pretend it's a potty. We are fine with that as long as he doesn't treat it like a potty... also Note: golf club in hands at all times. |
I wrote before that Cal was interested in the potty, but his mother was not quite ready (she's so selfish). Now that things have calmed down with the
screamer sweet one, Cal is still interested, so it's time to devote a little time and effort to the cause.
Here's the time line of the weekend (and a few days prior):
Thursday 8/4:
Cal woke up from his nap and took it upon himself to remove his (VERY FULL) (very) dirty diaper. He so kindly placed it in the crib and yelled out repeatedly: "Mommeeee! I poooooooped!" hmmm. MAJOR clean up required.
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| really you can't make this stuff up. |
Friday 8/5:
Mom goes in after nap time to find a completely naked little boy sitting in the corner of his crib, peeing. Yes. That is right.
Shorts? Off.
T-shirt? Removed (didn't know he knew how to do that).
Diaper? Gone. Only thing on him was his paci (which he was holding in his mouth like a cigarette, but that's another story). Apparently his diaper was wet and he didn't want it on anymore...some say this is a sure sign that a kid is ready to be out of diapers. (Personally, I think it's a sign that he is turning two and he knows how to take the stupid thing off...). Andy was screaming and needed attention so mom put a diaper on Cal and went to get Andy. As mom is feeding Andy, Cal comes into the room carrying a pair of big boy underpants (some might also say this is a sign that a kid is ready. Whatever. I think it's a sign that he likes the trains on the underwear). We put the big boy underpants over the diaper, just to appease the child that is screaming for his big boy pants.
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| it's blurry because I realized he was sitting in pee right as I took this. |
About 20 minutes later, Cal comes to me (I'm sick of referring to myself as mom....) and says "pee pee! Pee pee potty!!!" But he had his diaper on, so I just made a mental note. Well, I decided that now was as good of time as any... let's do it. I removed the diaper and was about to put on the underpants, and asked him if he needed to peepee first. He said, "okay!" and ran to the bathroom. And peepee he did. A lot. It was pretty cool! He finished and completed the routine which I am trying to ingrain in his brain:
FLUSH, LID DOWN, HANDS WASHED. That last one is tricky though because after he pees, flushes, and puts the lid down, he wants to go celebrate with someone. He's pumped. But we work on it, nonetheless!
After the success on the potty, I reward him with a "pop pop" which is just a little dumb dumb sucker. He is sooooo excited about his reward. It dawns on me that I need to come up with a different reward since he will be peeing a LOT during the day...I can't give him a sucker for each time. Maybe he will get a pop pop if he poops on the potty and something smaller, like an M&M for pee...just thinking out loud.
About 30 minutes (and some juice) later, Cal says "poo poo!!" so we race to the bathroom and he gets the giggles as he sits on the potty. Like, can't stop cracking up giggles. I thought it was hilarious too... this time there was no poo, but he did peepee again... just a little. We were on a role. No accidents yet.
Eddie got home another 30 minutes later and we played for a while and then Cal announced he needed to peepee again. I was thrilled that he was letting us know! Eddie took him in this time since I was holding Andy and he peepeed for Eddie: horray! He was a little disappointed when he couldn't have a pop pop since we were about to have dinner.
Eddie wanted The Loop for dinner so he took Cal with him, sans diaper (but with shorts!) to pick it up. I told Eddie Cal should try to go one more time before leaving and Eddie didn't think there was any way he would have to go again, but I insisted he try...he went peepee...(listen to the momma!!!). When the boys returned with dinner, Cal was ready to eat and Eddie was even more anxious to eat. I was nursing Andy so I told Eddie that Cal needed to try again before eating (he has peed in his high chair more times than I'd like to count...). Eddie felt like since he went right before they left, there was no need for him to go again. I kept my mouth shut, and Eddie sighed and said FINE. He put Cal on the potty and he peed...a TON! hahaha Eddie came out and said: "you were right. he had to reallllly go!" But, looking at the positive, he had to go, but didn't go in his pants! WOOHOO! Big step right there.
After dinner, Eddie brought Cal upstairs and Cal was saying "poopoopoo" over and over again. He put him on the potty, but after about 3 seconds, Cal announced it was "all done!!!" and ready to get in the bath tub. I think he probably could have gone a little then, but he was excited to get in the tub.
He went down tonight in an overnight diaper and we will start again tomorrow... it could be a VERY trying day for me.... praying for patience, calmness...and some good wine by happy hour!
Saturday 8/6:
After a long night with Andy, Eddie got up with Cal this morning and put him in a diaper. I slept for another (glorious) hour and came downstairs. I promptly removed the diaper, determined to be diaper free during awake hours.
Cal immediately peed on the potty for me and we put on shorts, no diaper for the morning. He wanted a pop pop, but I told him that pop pop's were for poopoo only (can't believe I use this kind of lingo now!). He said "okay" but went to the drawer where the pop pop's are kept. I gave him a treat instead, a chunk of a chocolate chip granola bar. As soon as he finished he started saying "more treat, more treat!" I told him that he had to peepee on the potty to get more treat. So, again, he said "okay!" and ran into the bathroom saying "potty potty potty potty." Hmmm.... the treats might sort of be working, but I'm not convinced that he gets it.
I continued asking him every 20-30 minutes if he needed to peepee. He would either say "no" or "okay!" and if the answer was no two times in a row, I made him go sit anyway. Each time I did this, he peed.
Andy and I went to the grocery store to pick up some other kinds of treats so that we could reserve pop pops for poopoo. Eddie was going to play outside with Cal and he promised to ask him to peepee while I was gone. I got back an hour later, and Cal was still
accident free!
We ate lunch and he peed on the potty several more times, really liking the new treats: M&Ms! Yummmm!
Side note story: Cal has been taking stuffed animals and trying to diaper them while talking to them: "okay baby, you go peepee" or he will pick up the animal and put it in Andy's bumpo and say: "go peepee potty, baby, pee pee potty!" SO funny... after he picks the animal out of the bumpo, he will say okayyyyy, then try to re-diaper him. It cracks us up!
Cal went down for a nap today at 1:00 in a diaper, but with his big boy underwear on top, and then shorts on top of that (he insisted about the underwear). After putting him down, there was some CRAZY screaming coming from his room so I went in to find him with both legs sticking out different crib slots, completely stuck. He was taking off his shorts and his legs slipped through the slots. The kid is determined to get the diaper off! We will see how he is dressed when he wakes up.... I'll update from the afternoon later...
Cal woke up from his nap and when I went to get him, he had his shorts off and was pointing at the trains on his underwear saying "choo choo!!!" The kid loves trains. I carried him straight into the bathroom and onto the potty. He didn't need to go, but he tried. I took him off the potty and straight into underwear without a diaper.
The afternoon went well. He went potty several times and had no accidents...! A few times he would get a treat (2-3 M&Ms) and then would say "more treat?" and when I told him he had to go potty for a treat, would say "okay!" and run to the bathroom, pulling his pants down as he ran. I'd put him on the potty and he would push as hard as he could to get anything to come out so that he could get a treat. HA!
I read somewhere that little boys especially are hard to potty train because they hate to stop playing to go to the potty...this makes TOTAL sense with Cal. He doesn't want to leave his trucks for a second to stop and pee. This will be a challenge we work around..maybe we will take the trucks with us into the bathroom....
All in all, we had a very successful first FULL day of potty training. He is wearing a diaper tonight for bed, but we are going to try for diaper free during awake hours again tomorrow. We did not have a "number 2" today, so I'm sure that will be fun tomorrow (he has gone number 2 on the potty several times before, so I don't think he's scared of it...). I think tomorrow we are going to take him to a park, so it will be out first real outing, diaper free, but it's outside so if he has an accident, it'll be easy clean up. Plus, this park has bathrooms, so we can run him up to them if we need to.
Hoping for a good Sunday in this weekend of trial and error!
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| underwear on the head... that's where it goes, right? |
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| he didn't bother pulling them all the way up |
Sunday 8/7:
Eddie got up with Cal this morning and I asked him to put him in big boy underwear instead of the diaper. Eddie agreed. I was upstairs getting Andy down for his nap (he was going down for his nap just as Cal was waking up, if that tells you anything....) and was rocking him in the nursery. I could hear things going on downstairs and I heard Cal jibbering away and then I heard "potty". Well, I think I am trained to that word right now, and I think I can understand his jibberish because I am around him so much. I wanted to scream downstairs "
get him to the potty!!!!" but I was holding an about-asleep baby in my arms. Then I heard him say "POTTY" a little louder and Eddie sprang into action. It literally sounded like he jumped over the couch to grab him (and he very well may have! haha). Then I heard Eddie say "ohhh, no...." We had our first accident. But to be fair, Cal tried to tell him, he just didn't speak up very well.
A clean pair of underpants and some clean shorts and we were back at it. He had a real tiny little accident, but he was saying potty as it started, and he finished on the potty.
Once I came downstairs for the day, I started asking him every 30 minutes. Most of the times, he was happy to go in the bathroom and try (he goes every time). Other times, when he's playing hard, he kicks and screams and doesn't want to go, but I carry him in there and put him on the potty and he goes immediately.
It seems like every 30 minutes is a lot, but when you think of how tiny his little bladder is, he's gotta go a lot!
Eddie and Cal took Hank on a little walk to a lake near our house. Eddie said once they reached the lake, Cal announced "poopoo, daddy" and Eddie said he panicked. Hank was off of the leash, he could hear two dogs coming up the trail and Cal had to poop (is this not the funniest picture??). Eddie started calling for Hank, he dropped Cal's pants and then sat him down in the middle of the trail to retrieve Hank before the other dogs came...ha! I guess all of that excitement discouraged him from going number 2, but he stood up and peed for Eddie in the woods.
After the walk, Eddie left to go play golf so I was dealing with both boys... I needed to run a few quick errands in my car, so I put Cal on the potty one more time (he went) and loaded up the car to run around. We were gone almost 45 minutes and made it accident free. When we got home, I put him on the potty immediately and he peed quite a bit.
He had a hard time going down for nap today-- I really think he didn't want the diaper on. Again, I put on the diaper, then the underpants, then shorts-- this time shorts that have a button and are a little tight on him so they are harder to take off. There was a LOT of talking and screaming going on in his room and it finally got quiet (after over an hour). I went in to check on him and I found the shorts off and the underpants NEXT to the crib and the diaper almost off....but the kid was asleep!
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| Underwear next to crib. Shorts in crib. Diaper almost off. |
I am nervous for camp on Tuesday. I just emailed his teacher to see what she thinks...diaper or no diaper... I don't want to regress by putting him in a diaper, but is it fair for them to have to take him to potty every 30 minutes?
After his nap, I tried to get into his room as soon as I heard him wake up, so he wouldn't have time to get the diaper off. I ran in there at the first noise I heard and his diaper was off and he announced, "mommy, I peepee!!" Honestly, I really think he hates diapers now and doesn't want to go in them anymore.
He spent the entire afternoon in big boy underpants and didn't have any accidents! woohoo!
Monday morning-- (
this is supposed to only be a weekend update, so I'll keep this part short...): I was nursing Andy getting him ready to go down for his nap, Eddie was in the shower and Cal decided he needed to poopoo. He told Eddie, while Eddie was in the shower, so Eddie flew out of the shower and put him on the potty and he only peed. He got him back dressed and got back into the shower and Cal decided to poopoo at that time. In his pants. And on the bathroom floor. Chaos followed.
HOWEVER, I took Cal and Andy to the post office and Target today and remained accident free. At Target we went into the bathroom and Cal peepeed like a champ on the potty... I was thrilled!! We will see how the week goes!
