Potty Training

Dear future Noah, I'm sorry for this post. But by the the time you read it, you'll probably already think I'm uncool, so here is reason # 52 to support your cause. Love Mom.

Do you remember that heady feeling the first time you rode a bike without training wheels? Taking that great leap of faith. Well I do. Because when my dad removed the training wheels and I set sail on that first bike ride, I rammed right into a car. My dad's car. The only car in the entire stadium parking lot. So it concerns me that I should be giving anyone advice in the area of training. But some of my friends have asked me to share my approach in potty training Noah, so here we are. We just started this week so its too early to tell you if we are successful or run into a wall (given my past experience this is very likely.) So proceed with caution. And if you have no interest in potty training, ie you are not a mama or have mastered this already yourself (go thank your mom!) you might just want to skip this one. Graphic toddler pottie language included.

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The approach I chose, to the dismay of the grocery delivery man last night, is Naked Potty Training. Basically you take off the diaper and let them run free. This approach can cost you some serious carpet cleaning bills, but we have floors so I was more willing to try it. Who wants to come over to our house  for dinner now on Friday night? Didn't think so. Anyway, he's diaper-less, but since its still cold out I had to be a little creative in his attire. Extra long Hanes tees to cover him up and baby legs to keep his legs warm. 

Not the coolest outfits you've ever seen, but I did get him some Cars and Thomas underwear so he's excited. The picture above he is in cotton training pants which I read were supposed to work better then Pull-Ups because they are less like diapers. And he peed in them right after this photo. So they are on in the photos, off in the house. The grocery delivery man can vouch for that one. Again, I already apologized to future Noah for this post so hopefully we're still good.

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So the first day went something like this: Removed diaper. Tanked him up on juice. Every 15 minutes we went and sat on the potty. Most of the time nothing happened. And a few times it did. In those few times, I went a little over the top. I danced, gave him a lollipop, a sticker, promised him a car when he turned 16, little rewards like that. Here is him calling his peeps (grandma) to tell them his big accomplishment.

 That first day was exhausting. But it helped him make the connection between having to go and using the pottie. I bought both the Bjorn little pottie and the insert that goes directly on the toilet. He prefers the one that goes directly on the toilet, I think because thats where he has seen us go.

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Day 2 was a little rough. I found myself trailing him around the house asking, "Do you need to go pottie? How about now? How about now? He would hold it as long as he could and then when he couldn't take it anymore tell me he needed to go and we would sprint to the bathroom. With poor Max practically rolling off the couch in abandonment. But really, already  by the end of day 2 he had learned the connection between the feeling of needing to go and using the pottie. And he could tell me he needed to go. There were several false alarms, a few tears, and a couple "put diaper back on" requests. At the end of the day I questioned if I was doing the right thing. 

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Today was day 3 and it went great. I changed the reward to one M&M and have come to find this is his drug of choice. As soon as he got one his face lit up and it was his turn to trail me around the house - Is there more? Is there more chocolate? Yep, definitely my child. So with this new motivation, he went pee every single time in the pottie today. No accidents. In fact he only has had one since we started and was able to stop mid-stream and finish in the pottie. You few readers that are not mamas or related, I warned you not to read this. 

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Another great tool I discovered is the Once Upon a Pottie DVD. It showed up tonight and we popped it in. Geno showed up right at the part where one of the cartoon babies has a pottie on his head and looked at me like I've lost my mind. Which I have, but haven't you just from reading about this process? Well ok then. Anyway, Joshua, the main little guy in this DVD, uses the pottie. Noah stood for the 5 minutes of this movie, grossly enthralled. The movie ended, Noah immediately turned and walked into the bathroom and sat on the pottie. I need to write the person who made that DVD a thank you note. As soon as I write the 100 thank you notes for Max's newborn gifts. I'm in a little over my head here. So thats it for now. We are only on day 3 and I've already written a short novel. The next chapter in this novel will be, "How Do I put him back in clothes?" Or maybe, "Will I ever leave the house again?"  Stay tuned.