About nine months ago, just before Chloe was born, I posted a blog about Connor finally being ready to potty train. We even went to the store and bought two packs of underwear. Well, no such luck. His interest changed before we could even get started. We were really disappointed and discouraged. We were hoping he would be trained before Chloe arrived or shortly after. Over the last nine months we have asked and encouraged and he just didn't want to. We did not want to force him, but we knew this needed to happen soon. Finally, out of desperation, I asked some local moms if they had any advice to offer. One mom posted a link to another blog that she said was a great help to her. After reading it, I felt like a weight had been lifted. It made so much sense! We discovered that part of the reason Connor did not want to potty train was because we were not excited about it. I mean, let's be honest, who is excited about constantly asking their child if they need to pee, or cleaning up when they don't make it to the potty in time. He is definitely old enough and we knew he would catch on pretty quick, but our lack of excitement was not helping. Another thing her blog mentions, is letting them pick out their own undies and constantly talking about undies. Once we decided to go forward with this, we picked a weekend that Cary could take three days off, and everyday until then we talked about undies, with over-the-top, bubbly excitement, I might add. We told him he could pick them out, we told him how his friends and family members wear undies, we wear undies, etc.
Finally this weekend came. Thursday night after dinner, we headed to Target. Connor got to pick out two packs of undies. He chose Angry Birds Star Wars, and Lego Star Wars. We also let him pick out a new movie to watch for peeing in the potty. The blog said to have some rewards set aside just for going potty. Now we were all set for the next day.
Friday
As soon as we got up, we took off the last diaper my boy would ever wear! He picked out his first pair of undies to put on. We showed him how excited we were about him wearing big boy undies and going potty and the rest of the day was spent asking him if he needed to go. It turned out much better than I expected it to. We only had three accidents, one was our fault. He was at the table eating lunch and we asked if he needed to go and he said yes and we asked again to be sure and he said no. We should have gotten him up and let him go. By that night, he was really starting to get the hang of it. We put Pull-ups on him at nap and nighttime. We put him to bed that night and told him we were so proud and he was doing such a great job. He smiled from ear to ear. After about 10 minutes, he called for me. I went up to see what he wanted and he said he had to go pee. I have read that this can be a difficult situation during potty training because children say they need to potty just to get out of bed. No my boy! He called for me three times that night to go potty and he went EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! Overall, the day was huge success!
Saturday
He completely surprised us that morning. We got him up and let him go potty and had breakfast. A little bit later, without either of us asking, he went to the bathroom and tried to get up on the toilet all by himself!! We were both amazed and so proud of him! We praised him big time and showed him how to put his stool up to the toilet so he could climb up and go. We repeatedly asked him throughout the rest of the day, but there were several times when he would just go on his own. We only had one accident that morning. By the end of the day, we was going all by himself.
Sunday
By this time, he was a pro! We still ask him occasionally, just as a reminder, but mostly, if he needs to go, he just goes. I cannot say enough how PROUD I am of him. This weekend went so much better than we had expected. Other than a few dribbles in his undies, we did not have any accidents and we haven't had any since.
We are still working on pooping in the potty, but we've got the first step down!
