Last week Little Chef took off his diaper, threw it on the ground and announced “Don’t need this!”.
And so it began.
Of course he decided to take this monumental life leap when James was working away, and I was handling my new life as a mother of two with a 5 week old baby… of course. Because he is my kid, and I pulled enough stunts like this on my mom to deserve a lifetime of this kind of crap. Literal crap.
So I pulled out the potty and plonked him on it and said fine. Potty time.
I had planned to try start with the potty in a few weeks or months, prepared with an arsenal of treats and wrapped prizes and fancy undies and lots of back up. A full blown Pinterest inspired pan. Instead here I was in my pj’s sitting on the floor nursing the baby and trying to convince my naked toddler to stay on the potty until the entire poop was finished. Seriously glamorous stuff.
I did the full on, rip off the bandaid approach. No more diapers. Naked from the waist down {him not me} and put him on the potty every 20 minutes. I found a slightly helpful and supremely annoying app that played a song every time it was time to go on the potty. But that lasted for about half a day before I was ready to throw it across the room. The first day he peed mostly on the floor, and once on the potty. The second day he had two accidents, a few potty pees, and one questionable puddle on the floor that he adamantly claimed was juice and not pee…
By day 3 he was going on his own without prompting and I was patting myself on the back for being an incredible mother. What a win. Then we went out. And so did all the potty training. We had a few accidents, went through about a week’s worth of underwear, and a very bubbly bath, but were back on track once we were home.
Then we showed him how to pee outside. And that was by far the coolest ever. Until the lines became blurred between inside and outside. Before I knew it he was yelling “Mom, pee!” and laughing hysterically while peeing on his toy car, inside the house, beside his little sister on her play mat. Fail.
So we will say it’s a work in progress. Wish me luck.
-Stephanie
