Potty Training Volume 2 Issue 3 - well, that was easy

Potty training is (almost) officially done. In basically one day. She still hasn’t pooped in the potty (she’s done it twice in her undies) but I think that is just a matter of me paying better attention, and her getting used to doing it on the potty. It’s a lot of new stuff for one stinker to learn! And she’s done SO well!

We’re doing the potty-every-half-hour routine, and so far she’ll go right away by herself to the potty and go pee. Her diaper was dry when she woke up this morning, and she went pee right away in the potty. She’s been dry all day (she doesn’t pee when she poops, and I think that is part of why it’s hard for her to learn to poo in the potty – she used to poop in a perfectly dry diaper before we started potty training).

I’m so grateful that it was so easy. I feel like I can go back to life as normal again. Things are going to get better. I know it.

PS – the kids are so entertained in this picture because I took it with the webcam and they could see themselves on the computer screen. They thought that was hilarious. I LOVE these babies!!

Potty Training Vol 2 Issue 2

Why do I feel like I've done this before?




We originally started with Joseline back in February, but she was too stubborn (and I too impatient) for it to work. Maybe if had been more patient.... Anyway, the important part is that we had brains enough to stop. And then life happened (a LOT) and we had brains enough to know we should wait until things got a little less crazy (that is, we waited until I got a little less crazy - but that is another story entirely).

Now we're back at it - and we decided to do it kind of randomly yesterday.



So far (about and hour and a half) we're already to the timer phase - I set the timer for 10 min (I started with 15, but after she went to the potty herself(!) once before the timer rang I shortened the intervals to 10 min just to make sure it wasn't a fluke). I think she just wanted a cookie...

No accidents (yet - I'm prepared for it to happen, but crossing my fingers that it doesn't).

This second time around has been easier than Vincente ever was!

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Ultimate Mothering Success

Vincente just woke up from his nap crying, and I could tell he needed to go pee. When he got on the potty, I realized that he had peed a little bit in his undies, but he woke himself up to go pee! And then, he went back to his nap!

He has been dry for the past week or so, but we still make him wear a Pull-Up to bed (mostly because I hate changing pee sheets every morning – especially now that he sleeps in a full bed).

I feel like this is a huge step toward dry nights and dry naps!

I could not feel better as mother as I do right. Not that it has anything to do with me – but it’s just one less thing I have to worry so much about!

Potty Training Vol 2 Issue 1

Three #1's in the potty, one #2 in the potty, and three #1 accidents on the floor (two on the carpet - Adam and Christy, Penny is now officially forgiven...) already off to good start - although I did try quitting twice, Russ kept talking me back into it. That little girl can hold her pee entirely too long. She would go for over an hour without going pee. Silly girl.

I'll update again tomorrow and hopefully post a picture.

I'm just ready to be done with diapers.

For a little while, at least.

-- Post on the go

Long Time

It’s been a while, and I’ve been taking too many pictures (again!) but I’ve decided to start only posting my very favorite pictures or the pictures that go along with a particular story/event I want to share. And then not spend so much time talking about the stuff that went on. I’d like to … but my life is probably not nearly as interesting as the pictures are cute :)

I’m going to work more on scrapbooking and eventually I’m going to start printing pictures to hang in our home (this fall… when we have a “home”)

Anyway, life has been very eventful this month. My parents came to visit, we went to the aquarium with them, the farmers market, and did a bazillion other things.

Now we’re getting ready for yard selling and moving and such.

I can’t believe our time here is almost finished.

 

We’ll be moving back to UT on March 1 (well, me and the babies) – but those plans are kind of tentative… they’ve changed at least 4 times since the beginning of the year…

 

Then it will be job hunting for me, graduation for Russ from DLI on April 1 (which I may or may not attend… he said he doesn’t care as much about his graduation from DLI as he cared about his graduation from BYU – I can’t blame him… bachelor’s degree and 5+ languages vs. associates and 1 language… hmm, it’s easy to see which schooling wins in the “coolness” dept for him)

In other news, Joseline still does not walk, I speak more Portuguese at home (and have committed to speaking Portuguese to the kids this summer while Russ is in AZ), Vince speaks Portuguese in the evenings and on weekends when Russ is home, and Joseline mostly just giggles. Oh yeah, and makes the “car” noise. Like every time she sees anything with wheels. Motorcycles, cars, push toys, etc. It’s pretty much hilarious. Her favorite toys are cars, and dishes. Good thing we have a lot of each.

 
And she loves Lightening McQueen. If Vince’s Cars toys are out and she has a choice, she goes for the Cars toys before the Hotwheels. I can’t blame her – they are pretty fun cars.

Vince goes potty almost all by himself and FINALLY puts his undies back on by himself. I just stopped helping him one day. The first few days he ran around naked because he wouldn’t put them on by himself. Then I started taking away toys/privileges if he wasn’t “underweared” Now he just does it himself.

 

Russ is getting ready to take the Chinese DLPT on March 20 (another recent for our early departure). He’s doing pretty well in class, but still hates doing homework. I totally understand though. We are SO much more entertaining than his homework :)

I am mostly hanging out with the kids, marking off my to-do list every day, and SO enjoying my garden which is blooming all sorts of beautiful flowers (the flowers are totally coming with me to UT).

We try to go to the library more often, and I’ve started doing a run/kid swap with a friend – she runs while I watch her 2 year old, then I run while she watches my kids! It’s working out great, and I’ve been pretty consistently working back up to a 10 min mile for 3 miles. I hit it just about on the head on Wednesday, and I hope to do a 4.1 mile loop next week, probably on Friday. With lots of hideous hills. It’s going to be a great run, though. Half-marathon, here I come! I’m progressing, slowly but surely.

The Post Wide Yard sale is on Saturday (the 6th) and my goal is to make $1000!!! Can I do it!? Better bet your bottom dollar I will!! I’ve got lots to sell, and I have the very best spot on the lot, which is going to be all decorated pretty, and I always have a “free stuff” box, which I’m going to place at the BACK of my spot this time, instead of the front, so people have to walk past all my COOL stuff to get to the free stuff :) You’d think I was in marketing or something.

 

  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the random update and the pictures. Just a few BAZILLION of my very favorites from the past weeks. (Sorry, I wrote “few” before I actually went through my pictures to see how many favorites I had… )

sunny day

Ah, the sun, the sand, the shore, the waves crashing on the beach, a perfect ending to a perfect weekend. We spent the day on the beach in Santa Cruz with the Wildes. It was fabulous. We didn’t even really do much. Just bummed around on the beach. I like bumming on the beach better than bumming at home – you’re bumming around either place,  but at least when you go out to the beach you feel like you’ve done something that day.

Mostly, Russ and Dan went out on the boogie boards, and Michelle and I sat near or in the tent with the babies, while Vince jumped around in the sand, explored the rocks, ate bananas and sandwiches, and made friends with some other little kids on the beach.

 

The babies were pooped after a while. Okay, well, Ethan mostly slept the whole time. Joseline was awake for the most part, but she was bored with Ethan (since he was just sleeping) and kept squawking at me, begging me to take her out to see the ocean. When I did, she would just stare at the waves crashing on the shore. It was really just a peaceful day. No rush to do anything. Just … living. That pretty much describes our weekend! (oh yes, that and potty training Vince – which has been WAY wonderful)

I got some pretty great shots – even with my dinky camera. It actually works really well out in the sun. Indoors is where it has problems.

On the way home we stopped at “Top-a-Lot Yogurt” in Santa Cruz. It was a self-serve frozen yogurt place. Think DIY Coldstone. You grabbed a cup, filled it with your choice of 6 different flavors of frozen yogurt, and then topped with any of dozens of toppings from candy pieces to fruit to sauces. Then they weigh your treat and you pay 39 cents per ounce of goodness. I think our total (including Vince’s chocolate ice cream topped with marshmallows) was something like $11. And Russ got a HUGE bowl of ice cream with just about every topping that had anything to do with peanut butter (pb cups, Butterfinger pieces, peanut butter syrupy stuff, chocolate syrup, etc). I should have taken pictures of the place. There are way too many things to think about these days now that we’re taking a two year old to the potty all the time.

This evening, some new friends from Delta Co. came over to hang out. It was a lot of fun. They have a daughter just about Vince’s age, and they are both potty training, and they both had accidents tonight. It was adorable. Okay, well, it was fun having friends over. The kids were exhausted, but they played pretty well together, considering. Joseline went to bed almost as soon as we got home. She was worn out from the beach, even though all she did was hang out in the tent with sleeping Ethan! I’m super ready for bed, but I’m waiting for Russ to finish some Chinese homework.

All in all, I am very satisfied with this weekend. I told Russ that I am neither anxious for him to go back to work tomorrow (like I usually am after the weekend – geez, just go back to work already! You’re messing up our routine!), nor sad to see him go back to work. It’s like the weekend was perfect, and I am completely content for life to just continue as normal! I think that is the sign of a perfect weekend.

Potty Training Part II – Days 2 & 3

Saturday – potty training went well in the morning. He didn’t have any accidents. Then we went to the beach. Russ tried to get him to go in the port-a-john, but to no avail. Then Vince spent most of the rest of the day in the ocean, or sopping wet on the beach, so we kind of let go for a while. I think he held it in, mostly. Vincente fell asleep on the drive home from the beach, so we just put him in bed in his undies and crossed our fingers.

Miracle of miracles, he didn’t pee in his bed! He woke up dry, so I told him to get on the potty as soon as he got out of bed. He threw a fit, though, and finally he asked me to hold him, but he peed his pants just as I was lifting him up. It would have been the best day of potty training had he not peed his pants.

Sunday – our first attempt going out while potty training. We tried to get Vincente to pee before Sacrament meeting, to no avail. Finally, he did pee halfway through Sacrament meeting and then again (a LOT of pee) halfway through the second hour (I hung out in his nursery class to make sure he would go potty, since he’s still not asking to go – although one of the times during Sacrament meeting, he told Papai that is was “potty time” – he didn’t actually pee, though). Anyway, after the second hour, he was getting really tired, and still hadn’t peed again, so we decided to just come home. He fell asleep on the way home, and we just put him in bed in his undies. Hopefully when he wakes up he will be in a better mood and go to the potty. I’m thinking we’ll probably just put him on the potty, whether he wants to go or not. He only had one accident today, before Church, and it was a pooping accident (I was trying to take a nap… so luckily I wasn’t the one who got to clean it up). I’m hoping now that he will poop on the potty – we’ll see.

*as you can see, our camera captures motion very well… as in, it captures THE motion… not “in” motion… but you can get an idea of how excited Vincente was to be wearing “quecas”! I can tell that he loves to wear undies. Last night he even refused to put on a Pull-Up at night! Of course, a few minutes after he had laid down, he wet the bed. After that, he didn’t refuse. But I think it’s great that he wants to wear undies! Now he just has to get used to this potty thing! Oh yes, and the picture of Vince in his camo shirt is from a few months ago when he asked to sit on the potty, but never went pee*

*UPDATE (7/6/09)– Vincente did in fact go poop on the potty on Sunday night! He went when I was at church for a teacher training meeting. I am sooo happy that he pooped on the potty. It’s like that was the big hurdle to overcome on our way to being completely potty trained! He is really good at holding his pee until he needs to go, and if he starts peeing a little, he realizes it and stops and runs to tell us he needs to pee on the potty! Our little man growing up so fast.

Potty Training Part II – Day 1 continued

Alas, we are almost finished with day one of potty training. Unfortunately, Vincente didn’t have a bowel movement today yet – which means he will probably have one before he falls asleep. Which means that he will need to stay up until he has a BM (unless he passes out before that).

As I type this, he is sitting on the potty. Unfortunately, he’s using potty-training as an excuse to keep getting out of bed (even though he’s in a Pull Up). We’ll see what happens.

If he would actually have a BM during the day, then I wouldn’t be letting him get out of bed 100 times a night.

Perhaps we will have to start implementing the 2-times out a night rule (thanks, Trisha!) but probably not until he starts self-initiating pottying.

As it is, today was a lot less crazy than I thought it would be. And way more successful!

Three cheers for potty training! :D

Potty Training – Part II – Day 1

Okay, so we took a rather long hiatus with the potty training business, due to me getting a wicked sinus infection, then having a baby,then getting mastitis, then getting something else, etc etc.

We’re back at it! And lucky us, we started just about where we left off!

Yesterday we told Vincente “Tomorrow, you get to start wearing underwear! No more diapers for you!” Which was actually perfect timing, because I used his last diaper last night when I changed him for bed.

This morning after breakfast, Vincente donned his “cuecas” – underwear. We started right away sitting on the potty, and we went straight to the big boy potty with his little ducky potty seat. We had him sit on the potty for about half an hour with no pee. During and after the first experience with the potty, he drank two 10oz sippy cups of water and juice.

Up until nap time, he only had two accidents. He’s to the point where he will pee in the potty every time we make him sit on it. He’s still not “asking” to go potty, or going to the toilet by himself, but at least he’s peeing on the potty.

We’re just going to be more vigilant about making sure he sits on the potty probably every half hour until he starts answering “Yes” to the “Do you need to go potty?” question. Right now his answer is always “No.” Or rather, “Nope.”

Tomorrow we’re going to a beach party. It will be our first real going-out-after-potty-trained experience. I’m going to bring plenty of extra clothes, but there is a bathroom nearby, so hopefully we’ll be able to make it to the potty often enough for him to figure it out. Wish us luck!

Quickie

I haven't written in a while, and I always hate that. Sorry, no pictures to go along with this post - although my camera is holding a few pics of Vince reading on the potty (adorable, let me tell you). I'll post those when I have enough time to sit down and let the pictures upload.

Potty Training - it's going well, we're mostly just putting him in pull-ups and telling him to "have a potty break" every 30 min. or so, and asking him if he needs to go potty. Usually, the answer to that is "NO!" although I think he's starting to say "No, thank you" since I've been redirecting that one. Earlier today when I asked if he wanted to eat lunch he said "NO! Thank you." Hee hee, self correcting is hilarious in little kids.

Baby #2 - I have my first OB appointment today in about an hour and a half. I'm going to go take a shower and get ready, since Vince fell asleep on the way home from the Presidio (we had to drop Russ off because it's a little rainy today). I'm really excited, but kind of anxious to find out how this little chickie is doing. I keep having Braxton-Hicks contractions. Mostly they happen in the morning, but any time is good for them. They are particularily uncomfortable, but as long as I just ignore them, they are bearable. It's a new experience for me, because I never really had Braxton-Hicks contractions with Vincente. The midwives would ask me every time and I would be like "My uterus does what?" Yeah... so I'm already feeling better about this baby's delivery. If I'm having Braxton-Hicks contractions, that means my body knows what the heck it's doing this time. Last time I think my body had no clue what was going on. So, we'll see.

Russ and school - he's doing pretty well. I'm trying to be supportive and let him study as much as he needs to. Some days are better than others, because some days I just want him to hang out with me and not study, which is completely selfish. Oh well. It'll be all good.

The mama - I am exhausted. Worn out. I wish I could sleep more. I don't sleep well at night (congestion from being preggo - starts at about 12 weeks for me and lasts the whole time), and having to pee. If Russ gets out of bed at ALL, I wake up, and then because I have to pee so badly, I can't go back to sleep unless I pull my achy, stiff body out of bed and go pee. So I do, and then I go back to bed, only to be awoken again when he gets up to go to work. Which is early. This morning, though, I completely slept through him getting up and getting ready! It was amazing. And then I had the fan on in my room, so I didn't hear Vincente at all until I got out of bed at 8 and went in to check on him. Of course he was just playing in his room. Sweet kid. I'm trying to keep the house clean, you know, do all the stay-at-home-mom stuff. Playgroup with the other RS sisters is a beautiful thing. Naps are wonderful... too bad those don't happen very often... in fact, I can't remember the last time I had a nap. *sigh* some day.

Anyway, this turned out longer than I thought it would, and I've gotta get ready to go, so yeah... hope you enjoyed the little updates.

Potty Training - Day 4

In some ways, today was much better... in some ways, it was much worse. I think I'm more stressed out about potty training when Vince is in regular underwear (as he was for the whole morning, until lunch) than when he is in pull-ups (as he was practically from lunch time until bed time). He actually stayed dry the whole morning (except once, I think) and then right when Russ got home for lunch, Vince had another accident. 

Getting him to sit on the potty willingly was still an ordeal for most of the day. Finally, just before Russ got home, he started sitting on the potty willingly, and mostly by himself. He kept that up for most of the rest of the evening. He went through about four pull-ups, and while I'm sure him peeing in the pull-up isn't going to be particularily productive, I'm more worried about him willingly sitting on the potty. You win some, you lose some. Right now, I want to win the sitting-on-the-potty war more than I want to win the getting-him-to-ask-to-go-to-the-potty war.

As soon as we start the day with him being willing to sit on the potty, I will graduate him to normal underwear for the whole day (maybe... I might take that back... I just need a break some times - in a pull-up, I can read for a good 15 minutes before I have to put him on the potty again, and he usually stays dry between then). I have a Dr's appt in the morning, so that will kind of thwart our potty training for the day. I'm going to try to get up and get ready for the day before Vince is awake, so as soon as he wakes up, we can do potty training right up until we have to leave for the Dr's office. We should get a good hour and a half in. And then we'll spend most of the afternoon (until he naps) potty training in regular underwear, then after nap, do the pull-up routine again. I would put a pull up on him for our trip to the Dr's office, but I don't think he's ready to try out a big potty, and I don't have one of those convenient fold up potty seat things. 

He did say once to me this evening (around 7pm) "Mamãe, I pee pee in pants." While that's not exactly what I'm waiting for him to say, the fact that he informed me at all about his bodily functions is a HUGE step forward for us. We just change his pull-up and have him try to pee on the potty after a pull-up "accident". 

So, despite being very discouraged this morning (around lunch time... he didn't seem to be improving at all), by the time the evening rolled around, I was much more encouraged. I really think it has something to do with him wearing a pull-up instead of underwear. When he's in underwear, I'm all high strung, and watching him really closely to make sure he doesn't pee all over the house. If he's in a pull-up, I just let him do his thing, asking him every now and then if he needs to go potty, and making him sit on the potty every 30 minutes (or when I see him dancing around).

Oh yeah, that's the other step we've made - I think he's starting to better understand his bladder control, because he's started doing funny things when he needs to pee, like walking like a penguin, and the best one - lifting his leg (like a dog). Both are really hilarious, and I'm glad that he now makes some kind of sign that he needs to pee. I really think he's starting to understand the potty thing. It makes me feel like he will get it down before Little Sister comes. 

There is hope... and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And I am wearing out my poor pregnant body. I'm starting to regret having started potty training at 7 1/2 months pregnant, but we've made too much progress for me to feel good about stopping now. Heh, so as long as potty training doesn't put me into pre-term labor, he'll be potty trained before I have this baby!

I can't wait.

Potty Training - Day 3 (a Hiatus)

Today we decided that maybe Vince's aversion to sitting in the potty chair has to do with the little splash guard. I think it's been hitting him in his poor little man parts, or at least hit him once or twice, probably really really hard. We took a trip to WalMart to find a better chair. We think we found one. And it plays a little tune when he pees in the potty, so that's a nice plus (we don't have to try to see in the potty to find out when he's going pee. I also think the music will help him want to sit on the potty to try to pee and get the music to start. Heh. 

The other nice thing about the splash guard on the new chair is that instead of just sitting in front of his man parts, it kind of covers them, so they still have room for him to do is business, and protects my legs from getting shot, all at the same time. Also, the splash guard folds down for storage, but that also means that if he doesn't sit down quite right, instead of knocking his package, it folds down, and then we can just flip it back up after he's sat down. That's probably more comfortable than sitting right down on the splash guard.

But it was Saturday, and I had decided that I wasn't going to potty train over the weekend - I need to keep my sanity, and I need a chance to recharge after a loooong two days of potty training. So we didn't even open the potty chair when we got home.

I was sitting on the couch, drinking a glass of water and watching Vince play in the living room, when he started getting curious about the box containing his new potty chair. He wanted to get it out, so I obliged him, thinking he would probably just play with it. I said to myself, whatever he wants to do, at least it will get him more comfortable with his chair.

I set up the chair in the living room (keep in mind that Vince is still clad in a diaper and some pants), and went back to my glass of water and whatever it was I was doing (maybe reading?). I started enjoying watching Vince play with his new potty chair, and all of the sudden, he started pulling at the crotch of his pants saying "I go pee pee, I go pee pee." I was completely taken by surprise, but stripped him as fast as I could. Of course, once he was naked, he would NOT sit on the potty chair, so I picked him up and sat him on the potty chair. He protested while I sat him down, but once he was sitting down he immediately got quiet and peed in the chair! He was completely thrilled by the music, and praised himself with clapping hands and "Yay, Vincente! Good boy, Vincente!" It was adorable. The new potty chair is a little more complicated in emptying, because you have to take the seat off, first, and then take the cup out, but he figured it out fast enough and of course enjoyed dumping his pee in the "big toilet." I thought maybe he would do it again, so I put his Lightening McQueen undies on him, but two minutes later, he was playing with a truck on the floor, and I think he was just distracted because he started peeing. Once he realized he was peeing, he got really sad and started talking about his "wet pants." It was kind of depressing. 

Anyway, the fact that he told me he needed to go pee pee gives me hope for potty training, and maybe it won't be as long as I thought it would be. If we can just get him to sit down on the potty by himself, I think we'll be home free after that!

Potty Training - Day 2

Today was at least a little better than Day 1.5 - although I've decided to take it a little slower, mostly because Vincente is still very VERY nervous of the potty chair. I haven't been able to determine why he's so nervous of it, but I've decided that the only way we're going to get over this is to practice practice practice. But I don't really have the energy to do it all day every day, so I've decided on a new routine for potty training:

When Vincente wakes up, I'll have him sit on the potty (hopefully pee) and then put on some underwear. All morning, from breakfast until lunchtime, I'll make him sit on the potty every 15 minutes for about 5 minutes (what Azrin and Foxx suggest after they've successfully peed in the potty). If he has an accident, I just have him clean up the mess, sit on the potty, and put on clean underwear. He's so afraid of the potty chair that I think having him do the practice trials that Azrin and Foxx suggest would be more damaging than anything, plus, he cries when he pees his pants anyway. I figure he understands that wet undies are not as desireable as dry undies. 

Just before lunch I am going to have him sit on the potty one last time, and then put a pull up on him for the rest of the day. I'll ask him all the time if he needs to go potty, and make sure he sits on the potty at least once every 30 minutes, and still make a big deal out of having wet undies, but I just don't have the energy to do the potty every 15 minutes ALL day long, especially because it's still a little stressful to get him to actually SIT on the potty. Seriously, once he's there, he doesn't mind being there, and during today's training he peed in the potty almost every single time he sat down, so it seems like he's not damaged by being nervous, he's just nervous. Maybe it's like riding a bike...

Anyway, then I'll diaper him at naptime (because he's still really little and pees a LOT in his sleep - in fact, I'd previously noticed that he pees more in his sleep than he does during any other 2 hour period of time), and then depending on how much energy I have for the afternoon (and if we have to go out - to a Dr's appt, etc) I'll either put a pull up on him, and continue the 30 minute potty time intervals, and keep asking him if he needs to go potty; or I'll just diaper him and give myself a little break from potty training for a few hours. 

I'm going to have him sit on the potty before we change for bed, and then diaper him at night.

Then it will start over again in the morning.

I've decided that it is useless to wear myself out every day, day after day (being 7 1/2 mos pregnant isn't exactly the best shape to be in when you potty train ... emotions run high, your body aches anyway, and you have absolutely NO energy... and you can't move very quickly, so a little toddler in underwear around your rugs and furniture is like a disaster waiting to happen). It's useless because although we're making some progress, Vincente is still nervous of the potty, and since the whole goal of potty training is to have your kid go to the potty on their own and sit down on it, we're not going to make any more progress until he stops fighting the sitting down on the potty chair part. 

The odd part about Vince's discomfort with the potty chair is that he will gladly sit on the chair fully clothed. Bare-bummed, he starts turning around and acting like he's going to sit on it, but keeps changing his mind at the last second. So I decided that instead of trying to get him to sit on the chair every 15 minutes and having to fight his nerves every 15 minutes, we'd do a quick multiple repititions all at once deal. I told Vincente, to prepare him, "Vince, we're going to practice the act of sitting on the potty. You can either do it all by yourself, I will help you, or I will make you sit on the potty chair." So, I removed his undies, and we started. Each time I would ask him if he wanted to do it himself. If he hesitated, I picked him up and sat him on the potty chair. The first time, that's what I did. The second time, he started doing it on his own, but then I tried to help him, and he freaked out on me. So then the next twenty times, I had to pick him up and sit him on the potty. But then, HE DID IT! He sat down on the potty all by himself. It was great progress. After that, he still showed signs of being nervous at our 15 minutes potty trials, but it wasn't nearly as bad, and occaisionally, he sat down on his own (with a little bit of help).

It was an exhausting day 2, and I like my new plan better, especially since we're running into a few obstacles with Vince. He's doing a really good job, though - he is really smart, and he understands everything that is going on (so far). He understands that he pees, he understands HOW to pee (sit down, relax, pee comes out), and he understands how to empty his potty chair.

The next obstacles we face (in order of importance - to me, at least) are being comfortable sitting down on the potty chair on his own, understanding when he has the urge to pee (which includes learning how to hold his pee in until he sits on the potty chair), and then going potty by himself. Oh, and then there's getting him to pull down his undies by himself, but I figure since he's still so little, and he's only recently had the experience of wearing undies, it might take a while for that one to come. He knows how to take his pants off, I know, because he's done it before.

I think we probably have at least a few more weeks of training to go before he starts pottying himself successfully. Hopefully I last that long. Otherwise I might have to hire someone to finish the job. But at least we've made a good start... I just didn't expect it to take this long. I thought maybe a few days. He's just soooo nervous about the potty chair - and that's going to take a little while to get over.

Potty Training - Day 1.5

I say Day 1.5 because we technically started potty training a few weeks ago, but things didn't go very well (we didn't have a potty chair, just a cushion thing that goes on the big toilet) so we gave up and decided to wait until we could buy a potty chair. Then we bought the potty chair, and I've been too tired and too busy to attempt it again. SO! Today was the day -

Realizing that Pee Comes Out

The first obstacle we faced was Vincente needing to understand that pee comes out of him, and that it is wet and icky and he wants to put it in the potty instead of in his underwear. I was having a hard time getting him to sit on the potty, and I figured it was because he didn't really understand what this potty business was all about. So, since I can shut the doors to our kitchen, I turned up the heat in the house (you'll see why in a minute), shut me and Vince in the kitchen, picked all the rugs up off the floor (to minimize clean up afterward), stripped Vince stark naked (except his socks), and let him run around and pee all over the floor. Now, you might thing that I am the craziest person you've ever met, and you're probably right - and I might not have done this under other circumstances, but I had already tried the straight up putting him in undies, setting him on the potty every 15 minutes, etc with absolutely no success, and with Vince not even really understanding why he was sitting on the potty. So I guess I was at my wits end. 

Now, I didn't just let him mess all over the floor and leave it there, every time he peed on the floor, I made him clean it up, and I made sure to tell him that it was his pee pee on the floor, and that we don't like to put pee pee on the floor, that we want to put it in the potty chair. This went on from about 10am until noon when he FINALLY let me set him on the potty chair. He peed a little bit in the chair, and so after much praise and many M&Ms and a cookie, I donned him in brand new whitey tighties and instructed him to empty his potty chair in the big toilet down the hall. He had a blast dumping it in the potty, but was afraid of flushing if the seat and lid were up. So once I figured all that out, we had a routine down, and he (mostly) enjoyed it.

Azrin and Foxx's Toilet Training in Less Than a Day

This is the book that my mother gave me about potty training, and the book I've been reading probably since Vince was walking. I liked the way they approached potty training, especially since they also talked about getting your child to obey. So I've been practicing the Azrin/Foxx method of teaching Vincente to obey for a long time (give the brief instruction, and give "manual guidance" - i.e. put your hands on theirs and make them do it - if they don't respond immediately) This method of instruction had been working really well in other aspects of Vince's life - learning to clean up his toys, learning to take his dishes to the sink, learning to stay close to me in crowded places (although that one is slowly wearing off now that his need for autonomy is increasing). So I decided to start there.

The basic schedule we follow is this - every 5 minutes, I ask Vince if his pants are dry. If he feels them and can feel that they are dry, he gets and M&M. Every 15 minutes, we go through a "prompted pottying" which goes as follows: walk to the potty, pull down your undies, sit on the potty (this requires me mostly to force him to sit on the potty, because he hates that part), sit on the potty for five minutes (or until he pees, which ever comes first). If he hasn't gone pee on the potty, yet, you're supposed to try to get him to sit on the potty until he pees, but since Vince didn't like sitting on the potty anyway, I barely got him on for a few seconds the first couple times. But then I caught him once when he REALLY needed to pee, and ever since then we've been able to do the five minutes. 

If he pees in the potty chair, we praise him, give high fives, kuckles, etc and put on his still dry undies. He is praised for having dry undies, and for going pee pee in the potty chair. Then he gets the pot out of the potty chair and takes it to the "big toilet" as he calls it. He dumps it in by himself (his gross motor skills are still a little crazy, so I make sure to help him if he's about to miss the toilet). Then I close the lid, and he flushes. He puts the pot back in the potty chair (he always says "This way" because there is a certain way you have to put it in so it fits). Then we dance and celebrate how Vince went potty in the potty chair, and I give him a cookie (those bite-sized chips ahoy I found work best). 

If he doesn't pee in the potty chair, after five minutes, he gets back up and I praise him for having dry pants and give him an M&M. 

This goes on... well, so far this is where we are, because he hasn't requested to go to the potty yet.

Although, since we were shut in the kitchen from about 10am-4pm without leaving, other than to empty his pot, when Pai got home, we went in the living room (moved the rug), turned on Finding Nemo, and continued with our schedule. Around 4:30, he sat on the potty, mostly willingly, and PEED BY HIMSELF! Usually he only starts peeing on the potty chair because he's so mad at having to sit on the potty chair, and so he squishes out some pee, then realizes what he's doing and pees by himself after that. Up until 4:30ish I'd never been able to get him to pee on the potty chair when he was CALM on the chair... only if he was emotional, which doesn't seem like it will make much progress. So, this was a big step for us, he got all quiet, relaxed, concentrated really hard, and PEED! It was a great moment. I'm glad Russ was there for it. 

Unfortunately, almost right after that pottying, he fell asleep... on the pottying ... so he was on the potty chair. It was adorable. We sat him down, and he just passed out on the chair. That's what we get for not giving him a nap all day. 

So, here it is - Vincente falling alseep on the potty.

And that's it, our first day of pottying. I hope things go just as well tomorrow.