Thursday, February 18, 2010

I'm just too big for diapers mom.

The adventure begins (and I might warn you it's a long post) Last night Craig came into the bathroom and started pulling his diaper off. When I asked him what he was up to he announced that he just needed to pee.

Oh! That's fabulous, surprising but fabulous. So I pulled out his little potty and let him sit on it. Sure enough he peed and pooped! Then when I was trying to decide whether to put a diaper back on him or if I should even try to attempt the whole potty training thing again I asked him what he would like. Again he surprised me.

"Mom, I'm just too big for diapers now. I need some big boy pants!"

I admit that not having two kids in diapers sounded mighty tempting but it was also in the evening and I wasn't exactly ready or full of energy and I didn't have a plan at all because I hadn't even been thinking about it. To me it seems like potty training at least needs a plan of action so in the case of an accident you know what to do instead of just trying different things and confusing the poor kid.

But he was insistent so I got him a pull up and we decided to see if he was serious or just a passing interest. I even told him that he was able to keep his pants dry like a big boy we could go to the store and get him something fun.

(he decided that this meant a Dinoco Blue Chick Hicks and kept talking about being dry so he could get him.)

I must admit he did not make it through the night dry (but honestly I didn't expect him to. That's a pretty tall order for a little guy that just started even thinking about the potty.) But when he came running into our bedroom this morning the first words out of his mouth were "Oh no! I'm just poopy! Oh no what about the Dinoco Blue Chick Hicks?"

I was impressed that he remembered and that he was still interested seemingly in the effort. We got him cleaned up and he proudly picked a pair of underwear with Lightning McQueen on them. (of course).

I was still willing to let him try it and I wanted it to be a good experience for him but today was a super busy super hectic day and I just didn't see potty training turning out very good with everything else. Not to mention the fact that we have a trip to Provo tomorrow and that seems like a hard one to tackle so early in the learning of this new skill too. But I also didn't want to crush his enthusiasm so we went for it.

So here's what happened today.

-We got up got ready (had several potty breaks very successfully)
-Got in the car with his underwear on. (must admit this was scary for me! What would I do with an accident in the car?)
-Drove across town to the midwife for my hour long prenatal appointment. (I love my prenatals by the way! SO much better than a cookie cutter Dr. office! Absolutely love it.)
-Stopped to get some food (that included a drink for Craig that also made me nervous)
-Went to the grocery store
-Back in the car to come home.

We made it home clean and dry and as soon as we got here he ran in and sat on his potty. Can I just say that I was totally shocked and very impressed with him at this point. I have no idea what spurred this but I keep expecting it to be over and of no interest any second but he just keeps going!

Then we had nap time (with a pull up on). He was barely damp when he woke up and I thought this was the breaking point because he looked so sad and said "I just need a diaper." But when I showed him the options for underwear and the possibility of a treat he immediately chose the "big boy pants"

-Then we had a hectic afternoon preparing for the pinewood derby tonight,
-Car ride to the church at 5:30 to start setting up.
-Lots of distractions and people and CARS to keep him interested. (I was worried he'd get too engrossed and not care about his pants being dry anymore.)
-Another car ride to several locations picking up last minute supplies time in the car totaling about 40 min.
-Quick stop at home and then as we were pulling out of the driveway he said very urgently "I need to potty!" so we quickly pulled him from his seat and made it the potty safe and dry.
-Then two and a half hours of pinewood derby where daddy was running the show and trying to control the chaos, I was supposed to be taking pictures and helping with awards and refreshments and crowd control (all the while the noise level was giving me a headache and I felt very faint. I just about took the keys from K.C. and left like 5 times.) and there were so many kids running around and going wild and Craig was worried about "loosing mommy and daddy" and sad that he couldn't have the cars to play with and K.C. and I were both being pulled from this to that by everyone needing something just thing after thing after thing I felt so bad for Craig. I didn't want his only accident to be because I was too busy or distracted to help him. It was a very hard night for me but he did so good he even came up during the award ceremony (where I was taking pictures of each boy and their car as they received their awards) and started tugging on me saying "mommy I need to pee!" So I handed the camera off and ran out of the room with him. (Great timing Craig! But at the same time way to get my attention and not just hide in a corner somewhere because there was so much going on! I was proud of him again.)

-One more car ride home, some dinner, one last time on the potty and he's in bed.

I can't believe that he stayed clean and dry ALL DAY! Even with pooping he always told me and made it to the toilet. I'm so proud of my little guy. With everything going on he had a very successful day. And because he did so good he did get the car he wanted. call me a softy but I didn't want his heart to get broke right from the get go. I hope we have as good success tomorrow especially with our long trip. But so far so good.

I'm exhausted from having to be so enthusiastic about every potty trip and trying to stay very aware and available to help him amidst everything else and trying to get everything done but still be patient and encouraging when he wanted to sit on the toilet for what seemed to be hours, but we did it. One day down, many to go.

If you have any good tips for traveling please do let me know!

For my own record keeping craig is 29 months old (2yrs 5mo.)

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