At the beginning of last month, we officially started potty training Lucas. I had been putting it off and putting it off, mostly for my own selfish reasons of not wanting to have to deal with that AND a newborn. But if I wanted Lucas to be able to start preschool, then it had to be done.
So we bit the bullet and did it.
Since then, there have been a number of rather amusing moments and a few different things I’ve experienced and learned…
- I don’t think I’ve ever said the words “pee pee” or “potty” more in my lifetime than I have these past few weeks
- My child prefers fruit snacks over m&m’s for his rewards (is he really mine?!)
- Bribery was used at an all-time high, and there is no shame in that at all over here
- I’ve never been so excited about seeing a turd in a toilet
- Walking into a room and seeing your toddler standing and pointing at his poop on the carpet and asking “mommy, what haaaaappened?” is equally disgusting, frustrating, and hilarious
- There is a LOT of laundry
- Sometimes, the clothes just aren’t worth salvaging
- I was naïve enough to think we might be “done” with potty training after going “all in” for a long weekend. That was funny.
- It’s a good idea to keep your favorite drinks stocked up
- When little boys no longer have a big bulky diaper on, they will discover (and become fascinated with) “new things” they didn’t previously have access to
- Nine times out of ten, as soon as I begin nursing the little one, the toddler will almost immediately have to go potty (thankfully, we’ve gotten to the phase now where I don’t need to follow him in every time now!)
- No matter how many times you ask “do you have to go potty?” they will tell you no…and then inevitably go in their pants 5 minutes later
- The first time your toddler tries to sit on the potty without his Mickey seat and falls in hiney first, you will laugh
- Stain remover/carpet cleaner will be your new best friend
- There will be a lot of incredibly funny conversations to be had about poops and toots and everything in between
All of that said, after about 3 weeks, I think we are just about fully potty trained over here now! Granted, that does not include night time sleep though…I’m not quite ready to tackle that beast just yet.
Lucky you didn’t hit the fear of flushing stage! I used to babysit for a boy who made me flush the toilet because he was afraid to get sucked in. Either that or he would flush and come running like all heck out of the bathroom!
My daughter is 4 1/2 and she still wears a pull up to bed, mainly because I am lazy and don’t want to have to deal with wet sheets in the middle of the night.
My daughter is 4 and she goes to school, she pee pee’s in the toilet but she won’t poop in the toilet . I do not know what fear she has using the toilet but she will ask for a pull up when she has to go poop. I just do not know what to do.
Oh my gosh this made me laugh! I’m also terrified though. My baby is only 10 months, but I already fear the potty training days ?
Oh gosh, no, don’t worry about overnight for a long time. I have read that boys especially don’t have enough bladder control until close to age 5 sometimes. Congrats on huge progress!!!
Literally LOLing over here after reading Jay’s Facebook status!! We clearly have a LOT to look forward to in the coming years… :)
Way to go Mama!! What a huge task, I’m not looking forward to it and praying I can pay my daycare more for her to do it for me…wishful thinking lol
This.is.fabulous. Looking forward to learning these things in the next couple years.
Too cute! I guess we got really lucky with Jayson. Going #1 went really fast. We bought pull ups for daycare to help minimize the accidents/clothing changes but he rarely had an accident so we ended up using them mainly for #2 and overnights. Going #2 was the challenge. Jayson would change himself out of underwear and into a pull up to go #2. We finally ran out of pull ups and he decided to “hold it” for a few days, which made him really cranky, before finally giving in and going on the potty. We found he prefers to read “Push Here” by Herve Tullet while on the potty to go #2, as opposed to all the potty books, you tube potty videos and anything else we thought would help. I agree, we never said “potty” or “pee pee” so much in our lives as we did while potty training. Also, kids will come out with the darndest things about farting or pooping and at the most inopportune or inappropriate time. Jayson actually told me that his unit had bones in it. Ayyyyee….. I thought I had more time before conversations like this??!
Oh my goodness, these had me laughing and shaking my head in agreement. Since I will most likely be potty training my last little one in the next 6 to 12 months, these are hitting close to home.
As for night time training, I don’t think most little boys are ready for quite some time so don’t even stress about that! Good job getting daytime potty training done, mama!
I really needed to see this post – thanks for keeping it real. I have SUCH a mental block about potty training my son (3 in October). Tried over the 4th of July weekend, NOPE, huge failure. Had plans to try the Labor Day long weekend…all that happened was that I asked if he wanted to try wearing his big boy underwear again and he said no, so I said, OK!! And promptly put it out of my mind. I wish I could outsource this one task. I just don’t want to do it! You’ve inspired me to really try though. Good job, mama!
That was great! I think it depends on personality cuz some kids do the long weekend at home and get it…haha my daughter decided when she was ready :-) for night time I’d just wait til he starts waking dry a lot….my daughters almost Lucas’s age and she started waking dry a lot and then started waking at night and saying she had to go—no work involved :-p winning!!!
Oh man! Way to go! Potty-training was definitely one thing that I was NOT looking forward to about having kids, to the point where I even half-seriously researched if you could have someone else do it for you. ;-)
I’ve successfully potty-trained my 3.5 year old (beginning of this year) after a lot of trial and error. I’ve yet to attempt my little boy… I’ve heard they are a lot harder, but your experience seems to be what I had with my daughter so maybe it won’t be that different! Here’s hoping, anyway!
Galena
Haha – so true!! The duck cartoon is especially accurate.
Haha, it is so true! This is with what I have faced raising my girls!