What I'm Doing

You know those commercials where the biologist gingerly cleanses the feathers of a penguin after an ocean oil spill? The philanthropist gently massages the syrupy, black toxins out of the innocent animal's feathers as we contemplate how we can reduce our dependence on oil, thus decreasing the incidence of this man-made tragedy.

I'm not doing that exactly, but as I shove the Dream Lites penguin under the faucet in the bathroom sink and attempt to strategically wash away the urine soaked into the stuffing without shorting out the light circuit, this is the image that comes to mind. As SS stands beside me crying "My men-gan! My men-gan!" and I scrub the hand soap into the fabric and lather, rinse, repeat, I contemplate how I can convince SS to keep his diaper on during naptime to avoid such natural disasters. I contemplate how to convince SS to actually nap during naptime. I contemplate why anyone would create a stuffed animal with a tag that reads "Spot Clean Only. Do Not Machine Wash."  I reflect on how I have changed both BB's and SS's sheets today, thanks to SS using both beds as his personal urinal. And I wistfully recall my plans to blog this afternoon.

What I'm Doing Instead of Blogging Today:  philanthropic electronic stuffed animal resuscitation.

Word to the Mothers: Potty Training

So a friend from my church just started a mommy blog where fellow church-mommies can share questions, advice, and encouragement - fun, right? Of course I love this idea.

I thought I would share my post over here too, since, you know, you're my peeps. OG style. Keepin' it real. Word.

(I wonder how long before they kick me off the blog?)

Anyway.....

Right now I am learning that it's not just the toddler that needs to be potty-trained, it's the parents too. Meaning, I need to remember to ask my toddler if he needs to go potty. But I'm not used to all this potty-prompting yet and so I often forget. And then there's a puddle on the floor and wet undies in the hamper. I wish someone was around to prompt me to prompt my toddler to go potty - that would really eliminate a lot of the elimination in my life.

Potty Training

We have had kiddie potties in BB's bathroom and the downstairs bathroom for months and have encouraged BB to use them here and there, but we finally went into full-force potty-training mode a couple of weeks ago. It started when I marked on the calendar that September 14th was officially Potty Training Day. As in, we wouldn't plan on doing anything other than pushing fluids and taking BB potty all day long. J was home the first day too, so we could tackle it together. In preparation for PTD, we bought plastic drop cloths, took BB to pick out big boy undies, bought pull-ups, and got a new and improved toilet seat with a built-in magnetic kiddie seat for the downstairs bath (since BB prefers the toilet over the kiddie potty - we've moved the kiddie potty now since he didn't use it). (You can check out our new toilet seat here.) The plan was to put BB in his undies, push fluids all day, and take him to potty every 15 minutes (or when he told us he needed to go). I was planning to do this with BB naked, and then someone pointed out that the undies might catch some of the pee if he started to go, and alert both him and us that he was peeing and needed to get to the bathroom. In case of accidents, we put the plastic drop cloths on our rug and couch. Kind of drastic, I know, but I'd rather lay down the $5 plastic than attempt to clean pee out of our rug or couch upholstery.

To prepare BB for the big event, we tried to hype up everything about potty training and big boy underwear to BB in the approaching days. We also had a book called "No More Diapers for Ducky" from the library that we read and talked about in the preceding days - after a few days BB would announce smiling "No more diapers for BB!"

So on Potty Training Day, we ceremoniously had BB pick out and put on his big boy undies and took him to potty in the big potty. We gave him a sticker each time he used the big boy potty - I wanted to collect his stickers at the end of each day and display them on a sticker chart in his room, but on day 2 BB peeled the stickers off the paper from day one and he plays with them all over the house. I'm not really sure where all the stickers end up, but they become un-sticky enough after he plays with them for me to peel off of anything. So I gave up on the sticker-chart idea. Anyway, on the first day BB didn't have an accident all day! I couldn't believe it. He only wore one pair of undies all day! We put him in a pull-up for his nap and when we went grocery shopping (which he did wet) but otherwise he went in the potty with us prompting him (it ended up being about every 30 minutes), and even told us he had to go once!

Since day one, we have had days with no accidents and days that runneth over with pee. For some reason he seems to always pee at least a little in his high chair. We discovered that the pull-ups do not hold very much, and so we are using them more as undies (like when he's in his high chair or for short trips) and are still using diapers for long trips out of the house, naps, and nighttime. He does really well in his undies most of the time, telling us he has to pee and is able to pee when we prompt him, but when we put a diaper on he tends to soak it. I still take this as a good sign since it shows that he has control and knows not to pee in his undies. And we're definitely using and changing a lot less diapers.

The best accident story so far is when, immediately after J took BB to potty, BB stood outside the bathroom door and peed right on the floor next to the console table. When J came out, BB looked up at him and said "Sticker?"

And one other thing worth mentioning - BB can now open the baby-proofed toilet in his bathroom with ease, the toilet that his auntie refers to as the "space toilet" because she still isn't quite sure how to get it open. We put a lock on it because it's directly off of BB's room and we wanted to be extra-safe, and well, I guess now we just have to hope that if he's smart enough to figure out how to open this lock at two years old, then he's smart enough to know to pull his head out of the toilet water if he's drowning in there.

So that's how we're doing it so far. We still have the plastic down on the rug and couch. It gives me peace of mind when BB is running around in his t-shirt and undies, which is what he wears at home these days. Hopefully I will have more progress to report sometime soon!