Samuel started potty training this week! He is 2 years and 2 months old now. I took him to Target first thing Wednesday morning to pick out Big Boy Underwear and some treats for BEAR, his little stuffed animal that we would be potty training. We spent the morning teaching bear how to use the potty. Bear went pee-pee three times and pooped once on the potty, but also had a handful of accidents (I dumped water when Samuel wasn't looking and the poop was playdoh!). After his nap, it was his turn! I had wrapped up the big boy undies for him and we worked on his potty chart. It was, um, unsuccessful in my mind. He went on the potty twice, but wet seven pairs of underwear. I put him to bed last night and told Ed that I wasn't too impressed with our day of potty training.
BUT, Thursday was a great day! Samuel stayed dried until about 5:00. I put him in a diaper for nap, but it was dry when he got up. He sat on the potty and peed right away after nap. Awesome. It is semi my fault that he wet his pants at 5:00 because I was watching Joel and another little boy and didn't make Samuel go sit on the potty. So, after I put Samuel to bed tonight, I feel like today was a pretty good day. I will say that Samuel is still too little to pull down his own pants and he hasn't told me yet that he needs to go to the potty - I'm just putting him on there at regular intervals. We have a ways to go, but I'm happy with the progress. My plan for now is to have him in underwear whenever we are at home (which is almost all the time). I'll probably branch out from there once he masters home time and hopefully starts telling me he has to go.
Oh, isn't Joel just a cutie?! :) We are those really annoying people who think their kid is the cutest kid in the whole world and OF COURSE everyone we talk to is interested in hearing all about him. We loathed these kind of people before we had kids and now we are the absolute WORST about it! Joel is 7 months old and this week has been a break-through on napping for him. He has gone down for a morning and afternoon nap with no crying and slept for 1.5+ hours each time. I am really loving that! This is especially important because starting tomorrow we will have a 1 month old little girl at our house during the day. Little L will arrive at 7:30 and go home at 4:00. I got to meet her for the first time today and she has a head full of curly black hair. You will see her popping up in pictures now and again.
The only other thing on the horizon this week for my boys is that Samuel will be in a wedding on Saturday. He has a little tuxedo to wear that is too cute. My plan is to load up the groom with candy and toys to bribe Samuel to walk down the aisle. I have informed the bride that in all likelihood Samuel will freak out and want nothing to do with walking down the aisle and she is okay with that. We'll see how it goes!
Okay, I just read my post and realized that it is pretty much me bragging about my kids. So, in all fairness, I will give you a list of some of the things my kids CAN'T do! :)
1. Samuel can't feed himself.
2. Joel can't crawl.
3. Samuel still uses pacifiers. (My mom is especially mortified by this fact!)
There, I feel better!
11 comments:
Okay first off where did you find the potty with a good splash guard? I have looked and nothing well unless I want to invest a ridiculous amount on a potty chair. Also the pacifier in my opinion is not a big deal but then again my two year old still uses one. I have tried to get him attached to a lovey of some sort but nothing he wants his paci. I think that as long as he isn't going to Kindergarten with it then you are fine. I am hoping to truly focus on the potty training with my two year old after we celebrate my one year olds birthday a week from now. I think I have decided that younger siblings tend to do things a bit slower but once they start doing it look out there is no stopping them. My youngest has been about a month or so behind when my oldest did something except the teething. My youngest got his first tooth at six months and then boom with in the month he had a total of eight. My oldest now he didn't get his first tooth until somewhere between 13 and 14 months of age. And here I went bragging about my kids. That is the wonderful thing of parenting is that we have the right to do this and everyone does it just others are not always so obvious.
leah,
my oldest is 30 months and we still have our paci! and we havent started potty training yet either...but we are looking to soon and it will look alot like what you've described. i've heard that method works well. good luck!
Leah, you make me laugh :) You do have two adorable fellows, so you are allowed to brag all you want! (Plus, it makes me feel better for blogging about how wonderful my sweet baby is everyday :)
Anyways, congrats on starting potty training! I had high hopes of trying early potty training with Karis before the new baby comes, but the time is quickly passing! (I tried it a couple of months ago, but she was scared to death of the potty seat, ha :) I wish she was attached to a teddy we could train; I don't guess we can personify her blankie that she adores so much? :) Please keep us posted on your blog about how the potty training goes!
Love,
Meg
Haha! I loved your post. Sounds like our 2-year-olds are pretty much alike. Maggie has almost mastered potty training, though, but we started introducing her to it at 1 year-old and walking, which is what my mom did with both my sister and me. So, on one hand, we've been at it for a year; it's a long process. On the other hand, the only time she has to have a pull-up is basically nap time and bed time. She can pull her pants and underwear off (and put them on) all by herself, and I'm convinced that a year of slowly working on training has made that possible. (Plus I hear girls are so different than boys.)
I loved the pic of bear on his potty - good idea. :)
We also are those parents who think their kids are brilliant and gorgeous, and that's pretty much all we talk about! :) But Maggie can't feed herself either. I'm so ready for that day!
Oh, yep, Maggie still has a binki too, although we've trained her now that "binkis are for bedtime and bye-bye in the car." :) You've gotta start somewhere.
Christy,
I bought the potty seat at Walmart for about $12. It has Winnie the Pooh on it. It was the only one I could find with a decent splash guard for boys. The other little potty seat we bought has the most pathetic guard on it - Samuel peed right over it this morning!
Meg,
Samuel isn't particularly attached to this bear. But it worked great to teach the bear first. I put undies on the bear and told Samuel we'd be potty training. It's worth a shot to intro a little stuffed toy to Karis for her to carry around for a week or so and teach different things to.
POTTY TRAINING UPDATE:
Samuel stayed dried ALL DAY Friday!!! He held it in and then when I sat him on the potty he pushed the pee out! We even went over to someone else's house for lunch and a nap, then to a chapel for a wedding rehearsal and to our church building for the dinner. He made it through all of it! I just carried his potty seat in a Target bag and had him sit on the potty every hour or so. I am feeling good!
We just started pottying yesterday with my 2.5 y/o son! It's going really well so far.
I wanted to say a quick note about the potty seat: we have a baby potty (safety 1st), but my son is so big for his age that he can either go #1 *OR* #2, but not at the same time! LOL. So I actually sit him on the regular toilet seat, facing the tank - my aunt has potty trained scores of kids in her home daycare, and she tells me that's the way to go with boys. I tell him he's like a cowboy riding horses! It's also convenient, because we won't have to carry anything with us except travel clorox wipes when we leave the house.
And about the paci...my baby sucks her thumb. :o) So I get a lot of flack about that, but it doesn't bother me. My son did too, but stopped on his own once he started teething. Maybe I'll be so lucky again...? But the thumb thing doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I just smile obligingly when people make comments about it. Our kids are probably going to need braces anyway, LOL! :o) At least for the time being, she can soothe herself wherever she is!
I would LOVE to know more about your experience. Did you talk about the potty before you introduced the bear/potty strategy? Were there "signs" that he was ready, or did you just start on your own? My plan was to potty train Noah this spring--he'll be about Samuel's current age.
I love that you made Play-doh poop. I laughed about that one! Is he pooping on the potty?
Thanks, Leah! :)
Mary
P.S. I just want to squeeze little Joel's cheeks! He looks so cuddly!
I just wanted to share that last week after my venting post, I took stock in myself and the discipling techniques we've been using with James. I decided that obviously they weren't working, and I was spending more time frustrated with my little boy than enjoying him. So, I changed...and with the help of suggestions from this blog. I implemented "flicking" for the back talk (it works!!) and I started "pausing" for spankings. Meaning instead of a quick passerby-here's-your-spanking, now we stop, discuss, pull down the pants, require him to remain standing, and give 2 swats to the bare bottom. I'll admit the first day we had lots of spankings, but now hardly 1-2 a day! I just say, "James I need you to be obedient, if you're not going to be obedient and listen then you'll get a spanking" and BAM! HE CHOOSES TO LISTEN!! Now, tomorrow will be our first day in public with the new system....so we'll see how it goes....
Thanks for allowing me to vent everyone!
my 2 year old still uses a pacifier as well. dont feel bad :)
We began potty training our son at 2 and 3 months. From the moment the big boy underwear went on all diapers and pull-ups were removed (expect for once the first week I put a pull-up on him over his underwear because we were leaving the house for 5 hours with no hope of a potty, only time he ever wore a pull-up and didn't even wet it then.) We felt that by only using underwear we were sending a consistant message that there is never an acceptable time to pee or poo in you pants. Oh we had accidents. By the end of the first week I was in tears. But, we persevered and within a month things were going much better. One thing I did was I made an excel spredsheet and wrote down every time he peed or pooed, where he did it (ie. pants or potty) and what time of day it was. This gave me a better idea of what time of day certain things were going to happen. Most kids (and adults) have some form of pattern to their poo needs. My son always pooed around 10:30, so I made sure we were on the potty between 10 and 10:30. If he didn't poop then we visited every 15 minutes. This worked wonders because he would pee in the potty and then hold his poo and poo in his pants 15 minutes later. So, we worked and worked. Positive reinforcement. I never gave out toys or candy for good pottying simple praise worked. He is the one who puts the lid down and flushes the potty. Giving responsibility helps them want to do it too. Another thing, and then I'll hush cause we certainly don't have all the answers, Even though he has been potty trained for over a year now I warn him. "In a minute we are going to go potty." This helps him prep and unattach from whatever he is doing. I don't like to be told "Ok right now get up and let's go." So, I figure letting him have some forwarning would help and it does. Today he decided he couldn't wait for me so after my warning he simply got on the potty by himself.
Again, please know we don't have all the answers our next son will be completely different in potty training but I just hope maybe some of our experience will encourage you to find your own way. Have fun, they will get it soon.
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