Potty Training IV

I know with all of my toddler time I have grown a little numb to the poop and pee talk.  I apologize in advance for all of my poor social skills that come as side effects of hanging out with toddlers 24/7, but it's currently all I know, and hopefully some moms of toddlers out there are looking for some potty training stories and advice that my poop/pee wisdom will help! :)  If you ARE a mommy looking for potty training stories, please follow the link to whichever of my kiddos are most like your little trainer because so far they have all been VASTLY different!

Maddilyn

Michaela

Lia & Sophia

AND, now to Billy!

Okay, so I've heard that boys are supposed to be harder, or at least be older and/or take longer when potty training.  This was not the case for Billy. 

Parents as Teachers used to tell me to start "potty training" stuff at like 10 months.  Talk to them when you change their diaper about where poop and pee is supposed to go, have them sit on the potty even when nothing happens, make a routine of sitting on the potty even before potty training, and to let this process go on for years and years and ease right on it.  This is not my style.  I don't want to go potty sometimes on the potty, sometimes in your diaper, take years, and roll with it.  I want to change diapers OR have a potty trained kid.  Black. White.  No gray. 

Anyways, as crazy as I thought this advice was, perhaps it WAS this approach that made Billy so easy!  (Cue another moment when I thought I knew better and that "my kids would never..." that I have had to retract).  Billy has wanted to be like his big sisters in every way since the moment he could focus his fuzzy infant eyes on them.  So, naturally, he has been sitting on the potty like them since he was walking.  Our bedtime routine was "potty & brush teeth"!  Before any long car ride we all "go potty"!  Before going in the bath or the pool, we take care of business.  Billy is a part of all this.  He sits like the girls, he puts toilet paper in like them, and enjoys the flush & hand washing with the best of them!  I never spent the time to do this with the girls, but now that it was our routine anyways, it was easy.  No pee or poo ever happened, but who cares, he thought he was hot stuff!  So, my advice to first time moms (if you're up for it), take that kid in the bathroom with you.  Tell them what your doing and praise yourself for a job well done.  They'll be absorbing it for sure! :) 

THEN it happened!  Mid August (age 2 years 3 months), he was sitting on the potty pre-bath JUST like the girls, and pee came out.  Did we just randomly catch it or was he able to control it?  I still don't know, but it was THE start!!


After this moment, he was obsessed with his penis.....  (okay okay, not JUST this moment, he's a boy!) .... He tried all the time to make that pee thing happen again and again.  It didn't happen much that week, but there were weird things like he took off his diaper and peed on the rug, or he would pee in the shower and announce his victory to his sisters with pride.  THEN he started peeing on everything (I think he figured out that feeling).  He peed on the kitchen floor, his train table, outside as often as he could.  So we started REALLY talking about where that pee is supposed to go, POTTY only!! 

Unfortunately, it was RIGHT then we spent a week at Tablerock Lake where wet pants are acceptable and peeing in pools and lakes goes unnoticed.  But since it wasn't my floor (Thank God!) I just put him in undies & suits the whole week and took him to the potty every chance we had.  He did GREAT!!  He had  control of that "feeling" and would pee every time with sitting, but also was not embarrassed or reprimanded if it happened on the dock or boat..... low pressure, high praise when he did it right.  A route that is hard for me in my own house since I can't help but to sigh or have bad body language when there is gross things on my floors to clean.

Since we've been home (3 weeks now), he's been an undies man!  He still does pull ups at naps and night, but if I put the monitor on him and get him out the moment he wakes, even those times have been dry!!  There has been ONE pee accident in the past 3 weeks. 

Now poop is another story.  This often happens in the potty, but only because he tells me when he's "tooting" and I know to take him and sit with him until he's done.  We wait a lot and read a lot of books.  We also have poopy diapers in the AM and at naps sometimes.  I don't know when he'll just know that "feeling" and just go without someone who knows the cues, knows if he's due, and is quick to action.  Lia and Sophia were both pee trained first and poop followed, so I know it will eventually come.  I also know he isn't scared to poop in the potty (ahem, Maddi & Sophia) so we won't have that obstacle.  It's a long wait when you live in fear of poopy pants, but he's doing great and I know we'll get there! 

Is it POSSIBLE that I may have ONE kid in diapers come Nov?!?!?!?