I'm Potty Trained!

Not me, you. You're potty trained!! What a big boy!!

You are only 20 months old and officially potty trained. We are THRILLED! We used the book "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" and it totally worked! My mom, your grandma Jill, actually used this method on us... and it worked. We were 2 when potty trained, my siblings and I. I would have waited, but since we're expecting twin girls this summer I had to get you out of diapers so that I didn't feel like my life was consumed by changing diapers. :) Plus, I needed time for you to get used to it... Grandma says I was very ambitious potty training you so early.

I have to say, the ONLY hard thing about potty training you this young is that you don't like pulling underwear or pants down because it's hard and you get frustrated.

We started potty training Monday morning... closely following the method of this book... and you did not seem to like it. We're supposed to do 10 positive practice trials, and you were bawling by the third one... so I stopped. You peed on the floor once, we did a couple practices and you helped clean it up. The next time you started to pee on the floor, I caught you a second into it and we ran to the potty for you to finish.

After that, every time I asked you if you needed to go pee pee on the potty you would clearly answer "yes" or "no" and if the answer was yes, then we'd go to the potty and you'd pee and it was simple as that. I let you nap in your diaper, you're too young to go without diapers for naps and at night.

After you woke up, you were potty trained. You went to the potty without any prompting. You just ran in there whenever you needed to go. You go pee in your potty, dump the pee in the toilet, put the seat back in place, then flush the toilet. It is sooooo cute. Side note: you were naked from the waist down that first day.

Tuesday: Day 2. I decided let's put on underwear, you mastered the first part so quickly, pulling down underwear and understanding wet and dry can't be that hard. After the first couple trips to the potty, you decided pulling down underwear was too hard. You don't tell me when you have to pee, so I have to watch you closely because you silently run to the potty and go. You couldn't get the underwear down one time so you just sat down to pee and peed in the underwear. The next time you had to pee, I asked if you needed to and you said, "no" and stared at me as you peed your pants. Ugh!! I was so frustrated!! You were frustrated! But, we did all the positive practices and I explained your underwear were wet and that was disappointing to mommy. The next time, you peed in your underwear again! Nothing I did had made any difference. So, I took off the underwear... and suddenly you were trained again. No accidents. Well, sometimes you stand up mid-pee to watch it and it ends up on the bathroom floor... but that's ok. I get that watching your pee is pretty cool.

Wednesday: Day 3. I tried underwear again, I felt like I couldn't go back once I started it. You would get so mad at me for asking if you had to go pee pee, I almost untrained you. You made it through playgroup without an accident. But you cried when I made you go pee before we left. So, we came home and I decided to just let you go naked and let you get used to the potty for awhile. You were perfectly trained again. You must like being naked. :P

Thursday: Day 4. Naked Day. Success. Maybe one accident out of over 10 bathroom trips. Pretty good. I never once asked you if you had to go. But I gave you treats for being dry.

Friday: Day 5. First outing. Dadda's law buddies were going to dinner at The Library, delicious. We showed you where the potty was. We packed 2 extra pairs of pants just in case and we brought along your potty seat (the kind that goes on top of the toilet). Half way through dinner you announced you had to pee pee and it was great. Accident free. Success. That felt so good. Then we went bowling. We ended up asking you to go after awhile because we were so paranoid. But, you happily went. We could not believe when we came home after being out for over 3 hours that we had made it accident free!

It's nice to not be super terrified of going in public. I'm still not sure how to swing it at the park if you have to pee... there's no potty there. Walmart makes me nervous too since the toilet is so far away from shopping. Oh well. Baby steps. We're almost there! You are such a big boy and we are so proud of how fast you picked up on potty training. Once you get the dexterity to easily pull down your underwear it will be even better. :)