First Underwear

Look at that big boy butt in his big boy Elmo underwear. You know those will be going into his keepsake box.

My big boy woke up bright and early at 7:15 am and went right into his first pair of underwear! He picked them out himself!!!

So here is to another day of potty training, fingers crossed.

Potty Training Day 2

8 am, Off to a great start! Johnny woke up around 7:30 with a wet diaper, but no poo poo. Twice between 7:30 and 8 Johnny asked to go potty just for us to sit there. But at 8 am it was like a well oiled machine...."Momma Potty" and we went to the potty and he peed, A LOT!!!

9 am, I found a puddle on the tile but I can't decide if it is an accident or something was spilled. We where upstairs for most of the last hour and pee pee hitting the tile would have made enough noise for me to hear. Either way it is not a big deal, accidents are to be expected, but we will be headed to the potty every 15 minutes again instead of waiting for him to tell me.

9:15 am, headed to sit on the potty and he didn't throw a fit or anything. We where reading books and a little pee came out in the toilet and his little face lit up, then it was like a light came on and his mind said "oh ya that is what I am suppose to do here" and he let a bunch out. But he wanted to keep reading books so we sat there for a little while longer reading books.

10 am, I have noticed he is leaking more without noticing today, he is drinking more today then yesterday, which would account for it.

10:30 am, after throwing a fit and sitting in time out for the first time over going potty he finally peed again on the potty. He knows what to do and isn't emptying his bladder on the floor, just leaking a little now and then.

11 am, he still hasn't told me again that he needs to potty, but he did pee again when I put him on it. He still knows, but now he is testing it, we just have to keep reinforcing going on the potty, nothing happens over night!

11:20 am, Morning is our TV time, maybe Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street has been distracting. I noticed Johnny holding himself and dancing a little while watching TV so I took him to the potty and he peed a lot! The TV is off.

This is Johnny playing with his "reward." We don't offer candy or anything just because I am not sure his mind can relate the reward with potty. But these silk flowers are from our wedding and are in a glass cabinet in the bathroom, Johnny always asks to play with them so I only let him after he goes pee pee on the potty.

11:30 am, It appears my TV theory was correct. Johnny just ran by me, sitting at the computer, yelling "MOMMA POTTY" right to the bathroom, climbed up and went poo poo! But he was so excited to see and say "bye bye" to his poo poo that he got off the potty and I thought he was done. A few minutes later he ran past me again yelling "POTTY" and sat down again to pee pee! Like he was trying to hold everything in until his shows where over.

Saying bye bye to his poo poo! (yes I am keeping the camera in the bathroom, this is all very exciting)

3 pm, After a great two hour nap his training pants where wet, but dryer then yesterday and he peed on the potty right after he woke up. Then Mommy tried to stay upstairs and put away cloths for the last hour and Johnny wasn't having that. Without mommy's full attention he just wasn't happy, he started to yell "potty" every five minutes to get my attention, knowing I would come running. This being just the second day I kept coming to him, but we set up the bathroom so that he can now get on the toilet by himself, but he still asks for help to get Mommy's attention. And no accidents this afternoon, he is doing great, if a little side tracked!

6 pm, I am a little confused on where we are at right now. After his last pee at 3 pm I tried to give him the opportunity to tell me that he needed to go. I asked him often and the answer was always "no." When Daddy came home around 5 pm, Daddy took him to the potty and he peed, but only a little. Then around 5:45 as we where eating dinner he asked to go potty, and peed again only a little, I think that was more to get out of sitting in his high chair. As far as I can tell he has not had any accidents, but when I clean up the toys tonight I fear I will find a pee corner!

I was going to wait until Thursday to put his underwear on him, but maybe we will try tomorrow so I can really see how much he is holding and how much he is just letting out when he doesn't want to bother with the bathroom. He knows where to put the pee pee and poo poo, it is time to move forward.

6:20 pm, while climbing on and kissing Daddy Johnny told him "potty poo poo" He then peed a good amount, but no poo poo. I am learning that there is no pee schedule, you never really know when he will need to go or how much he will need to pee. Yesterday was just so cut and dry, and today not so much...but he is still doing an amazing job!

6:45 pm, Johnny was sitting with Daddy on the couch watching Elmo's World and Daddy saw him acting suspicious and asked him if he needed to potty...Johnny said "watching Elmo's World." So we showed Johnny how to pause it and Johnny dragged Daddy to the potty where Johnny fully emptied his bladder! He is a good boy! See him hold his pee even when he doesn't want to leave what he is doing to use the potty itself.

Bath and bed and a diaper again for sleep.

Potty Training Day 1

I am starting this post at 11:30 am and plan on continuing it for the rest of the day. I wanted to document our potty training. This is our third time trying potty training. The first was when Johnny was about 21 months old, he just couldn't hold pee, he just leaked all day, he wasn't physically ready. The second time was last month and we just tried cloth training pants, but he didn't care when he was wet. So this time Johnny and Mommy are not going anywhere all week and Johnny is going around the house half naked, which he enjoys.

All morning we have been going to sit on the potty every 15-30 minutes and sit there until something comes out or about 10 minutes pass, reading books and playing dinosaurs. Twice during our regular sittings he has peed on the potty! He realizes it and gets really excited, we clapped and yelled and made a really big deal out of it.

Johnny had to take his favorite two dinosaurs and his elephant with him, he held on tight so none of his friends fell in.

We wondered outside to water Mommy's plants and Johnny found his new little chairs and got comfy. He would have sat there all day, but there where lots of bees, see the dandelions! Daddy is going to take care of it tonight.

Once this morning Johnny peed while sitting on the floor and got up saying "potty" and we rushed to the potty, but he must have emptied on the floor...no big deal, I was so proud that he knew he needed to go to the potty. Just now Johnny peed a little on the floor, stopped himself and said "potty," so we ran to the potty and he peed a bunch! I was so proud! We clapped and laughed together and we hugged.

The Afternoon:
He peed quite a bit in his training pants at nap time and woke up angry about it, but once we handle peeing on the potty awake we will work on holding it while asleep. Then once out of bed he peed a little on the floor without noticing it, but Momma noticed it shortly after it came out and rushed to the bathroom. It concerns me that maybe he was leaking all morning and I just didn't notice it. But we hold the course steady, what else can we do? This is the point where Momma started to waver the last two times we tried, the afternoons seem to be harder, but I can't give up on him again, he is a smart kid and deserves to be aloud to grow up.

3 pm SUCCESS!! Johnny is eating his snack and asks me "potty?" I say "YES" and grab him...we sit down and he pees a bunch! Laughing and clapping the entire time! Then he even tried to push a little, so a poo poo might be on its way. He also seems to like to sit on the potty with Momma's undivided attention and lots of books! I like it too!!!

3:20 pm DOUBLE SUCCESS!!! Momma is sitting at the computer and Johnny is playing behind me, I hear "potty poo poo, Momma potty" and he went running for the bathroom!!! He got his little stool put it in front of the potty and climbed onto the toilet all by himself! Then peed and pooped!!!! That is my big boy!! He immediately got off to look into the potty and say bye bye to his poo poo! As sad as it makes me that he is growing up, I am close to tears with pride at this accomplishment!

4:30 pm another success!!! As I clean the floor in the bathroom he comes in and asks what I am doing, I tell him and ask if he wants to go potty and, there ya go, back on the potty and immediately a full bladder is empty!

I have learned to time our trips to sit on the potty around what he is doing, to catch him in between toys and not to put on any full length movies, (Land Before Time) but only shows with a break in the story line every 15-20 minutes like dinosaur train or Elmo's World. If you try to take him away from something he is enjoying to go to the potty he will just yell and not pee pee. But at this point in the afternoon he is telling me when he needs to go and stares at me blankly when I just put him on.

6 pm AGAIN! After an hour and a half of trips to try to potty and a couple false alarms we have yet another success!!! With NO leaks or accidents in between! This stream was long and I was scared to clap and congratulate him until it was done for fear he would stop. He told me "potty" we went to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and there ya go...again! I will be putting his training pants on him for dinner, because bare butt at the table seems unhealthy. Oh and he isn't fully naked, just bottomless, he has been wearing a T-shirt all day.

7:15 pm After an hour or so in the training pants they where completely dry when I took them off! And we sat on the potty again with nothing coming out. But he is getting tired since he didn't nap well having peed and been angry about being wet. So he is taking a bath now and then will go into a diaper for bed.

Shawn and I discussed that if the potty training goes really well this week that we will transform his crib into a toddler bed, so we can minimize night diapers and work on complete potty training, i e him getting out of bed to potty if he needs to. He does know and welcome bed time and even puts himself to bed when he can get into his crib alone. The only thing is, that I thought we would need him to still be contained in the crib when Lily gets here just in case she wakes him in the middle of the night. But we will see how the rest of the week goes. We have NO plans to go anywhere or do anything but pee on the potty!

Today was a very hopeful and positive start. I attribute some of this to Grams and Pops trip to the beach with the kids this past week end. They had him on the potty when ever they could and in his swim trunks with no diaper or little swimmer for a good deal of the time. They both say that they noticed every once in a while he would stop and spread his legs a little bit and look down, or even see the pee running down his leg and once while he was pooping in his diaper he told them and walked funny, obviously not wanting the poo there. He was perfectly ready to start this with momma today. We had so few accidents and I feel like he is really catching on. A couple more days bare butt and then maybe we will try underwear again.

One unrelated sweet story: while Johnny was in his dinner time training pants he was cuddling with me!!! Which is sweet and out of his norm anyways, but Mommy's belly was in the way so we talked about a baby being in Mommy's belly and he was catching on, even lifting his shirt to ask if there was a baby in his belly. Then he kissed my belly, it was very sweet. Mommy and Johnny had a few sweet moments talking about the new baby and cuddling together! He kept moving my arms to make sure I was holding him the way he wanted me to hold him saying "hold me." I will forever cherish these moments and this day, just Mommy and Johnny having a great growing day together. He really helped my Mommy self esteem today, he is a good and smart boy!