All in all, this has been going remarkably well. A lot better than I anticipated, considering I didn't think he was even remotely ready for potty training. Today we saw only 2 pee accidents and that, again, was first thing this morning. We had HUGE success with poop today - he actually did it on the potty - HOORAY! This was thanks largely to Nick's genius idea (thank goodness he was working from home today and able to help). I could tell Ben had to go and every time I'd hear him start, I'd whisk him off to the potty and he'd stop. Nick had the great idea of going in to the bathroom and shutting the door. He brought a book and entertained Ben until Ben decided to go - and we had success!
Here comes the next problem. This is already TMI because I'm discussing my poor kid's bathroom habits on a public forum, so why hold back more? ha ha I have a very sensitive gag reflex when it comes to certain smells. Clearly I did not think ahead when I bought a training potty for him to learn on. Guess what has to happen when some one uses it? Well, it has to get cleaned out. The pee doesn't bug me. The poop.... ugh. Again, thank goodness Nick was here to help out. I think with potty training any future kids, I'll ditch the potty chair and start out with the toilet insert. As a very smart mama shared with me, no where else in the world will the kid get to use a special potty, so they might as well learn how to do their business on the regular one like every one else.
Another, smaller, problem with all of this is me. Did you know I'm a total rule follower? That I panic at most spontaneous things? I like a plan. I like rules. I like following steps 1 through 5 to achieve a known destination. My husband is not this way. My husband lah-dee-dah, fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy. Which is why we're actually doing potty training now rather than later. I was going to research, create a plan and stick to the plan. He said "huh, Ben peed once. Let's try this again" and potty training officially happened at our house. So when I'm trying to follow this plan of 1 hour out of the house... well... it doesn't work. First of all, it's hellishly hot here right now. It's hard to do much of anything outside without getting way hot. Secondly, at this stage in potty training, Ben's bladder seems to want to go about every half hour to forty minutes.
So today we were supposed to go outside for two one hour trips. We went outside for a little bit this morning and played in the backyard. I brought the potty out and he peed in it and then wanted to come in. I don't believe we went out at all this afternoon. Another tiny road block - Ben insisted on wearing pants today. He cried when I wouldn't let him, so I gave in, because really? Make my kid cry because he wants to wear pants and the plan says not to? At first, I panicked - cue frantic thought process: ohmigod! we've gone off the plan! we were supposed to go out for two trips today! what will happen? what should I do? He's supposed to go bare-bottomed for 3 months! He's wearing pants, what will happen? What should I DO?????
Relax.
That's what I should do (and did). I figure for this week, we'll just hang around home. We'll go to Little Gym on Wednesday and he'll wear a diaper while we're out. I'll go to our playdate on Friday and he'll wear a diaper while we're out. The rest of the time, we'll just stick close to home. We'll venture outside when we can. After this week of working on it, we'll see about trying to go further from home. If he wants to wear pants - let him wear pants! His bottom is probably cold!
So at the end of day three, we've had more hits than misses. We've had more progress and no back tracking. Will we have some set backs in the next few weeks, months, whatever? Probably. But that's okay - we'll work through them. Maybe we'll get lucky and just have a super easy to train kid. Works for us!!
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