Our "potty training" adventure....

    Eli is potty trained! Woo hoo! He has gone a couple weeks now with ZERO accidents, including nap time and bedtime. It basically just came down to him deciding to be done peeing in a diaper. For some reason my kid poop trained BEFORE being pee trained. I've never heard of this. Anyone else's kid do it backwards too?? He's been going #2 in the potty since January, so since 2 ½ yrs old. But each time I'd ask him why he didn't want to pee in the potty he'd say "because I like my diaper. I wanna pee in a diaper mom." Well alrighty then!

    To be completely honest, I was dreading the day we would start. I liked, (no strike that) LOVED the convenience of diapers. I feel horrible admitting this but one day I had said to myself, "you know what? I'm off for the next few days, maybe we'll go diaper free and try this potty training thing." But shortly into it, he kept asking me to help him on the potty every 5 minutes and I was in the middle of cooking/meal prep and it was super annoying to drop what I was doing and help him. What kind of mother am I?? I didn't want to be inconvenienced, when with a diaper, I could change him on my time at my leisure (because he could care less about sitting in a wet diaper to be honest.) I decided long ago that I wouldn't even consider training until after he turned 3 (since I had heard that boys didn't even have the physical capability until around this time, unlike girls who can train earlier) and this experience just solidified that decision. I wanted to enjoy the freedom that diapers offered a little longer-- no navigating the inevitable public restroom pit stop (Ugh! How would I manage that?? He'd have to sit on a public toilet seat?? **shiver**) and no accidents miles from home with no spare outfit on hand. Yep, this potty thing could most definitely wait. And yep, I'm a terrible person.

    So because I decided ages ago to wait until Eli was 3, I had a very laid back approach to this whole process. I took full advantage of him barging through the closed bathroom door wanting to be with me while going potty and explained what I was doing and would excitedly ask him each time if he would like to flush the "peepees" down the drain. "Okay!!" he'd shout. And it became fun, a bonding experience if you will. After a while I'd say, "hey bud, you know, if you go poopoos in the potty then you can flush your poopies away! How fun would that be??" At first he seemed skeptical but then gave it a try one day and he's gone in the toilet ever since! I of course would jump up and down cheering him on and tell him how proud I was and he seemed to enjoy the praise just as much as the actual flushing. "Did you see me go poopoos in the potty momma? Are you so proud of me?" "I sure am bud!" And that is how it happened. Seriously. No gallons of juice given and a stop watch set for every 30 minutes. We just talked and watched and he did it. I can't emphasize enough how important it was for both of our wellbeing to not rush things when he was not physically or emotionally ready to be successful. I hear people who say their child is potty trained at 18 months and then later on find out said child still has random accidents and needs a diaper at night. That scenario does not work for this lazy mom. No siree. The diaper fund would go on and this mommy would keep what precious few strands she had left on her head.

   I bought the cutest boxer briefs for him and I can't help but grin when I pull these little skivvies out of the wash :D Unfortunately I can't find the pic I took so here's one of him modeling my potty training "prototype" last year. Such a ham!

I made these back when I thought we'd train "early". Then came to my senses and gave them to Eli's buddy Parker who is 7m older and was about to start the training process.

And that's all she wrote!

-Linds