P is for Potty

The groundwork for potty training has been laid for almost a year now.  Grammy had provided a mini-potty way back when for Z to get used to the idea, and he would sit on it (fully clothed) while we used the toilet.  So he has had the concept in his head for quite a while.  This summer, Grammy bought him a full-sized potty so we could begin training in earnest, though we haven't had a ton of success.  There were two days where we had tiny trickles first thing in the morning, but then he seemed to lose interest in it.

Well, having the heart surgery scheduled gave M a great excuse to take some extended time off, and having him home all the time gave me a great excuse to really start training.  We started this past Friday.  Our original plan to have him sit on the potty every hour on the hour did NOT go well. We'd ask him if he wanted to sit on the potty and the answer was always no, and all the literature agrees that you shouldn't force the issue.  So day one just kinda fizzled out without much headway. Day two didn't go much better, although I was able to stop by the local library and clean out the shelf of potty books.  That went over quite well.  The boy is not one to turn down a new book!  Today we weren't really pushing it, a little discouraged by how days 1 & 2 went.  If Z asked to sit on the potty, we let him; if he wanted us to read him the potty books (which was pretty much all the time), we did. There was a little trickle at one point, and we made a big deal out of it, gave him his sticker, even put him in training pants afterwards (he shortly peed in the training pants, which didn't catch it all, so we had a wet couch).  M was a little worried that it had become more about the books than the potty, since Z had a little bit of a meltdown at one point over a book.  He (Z, that is, not M!) cried for a good while. He finally calmed down with a sippy cup of milk, followed by another, followed by ten minutes of calmness.  On the premise that hey! he might have a full bladder after two big cups of milk!, we sat him on the potty again and proceeded with the endless variations on "is it a hat?  no, it's not a hat" that seem to be required material for potty books.  And wouldn't you know, about halfway through the fourth (fifth? sixth?) book we heard peeing!  And there was much rejoicing!  And we made a big deal out of it while he peed, and then a big deal out of dumping it into the big toilet, and washing the hands, and forgot to give him a sticker, but hey!  He peed in the potty and seemed excited enough that he wanted to get right back on.  Can't argue with that!  Now to keep up the momentum...


(Z on the potty with the array of potty books)