Ode to the potty?!

Or maybe not. Honestly, I couldn't think of anything else to title this posting, so it is what it is. Let me start this by stating that I believe that potty training is the WORST chapter in a mom's life as being a parent! I have been dreading this day from the day Jackson was born and I am still not looking forward to diving in full fledged. However, I still have pee-pee parties and poopy trains going around the house!

Eh em... back to the post...

A friend of mine recently sent me a message through Facebook inquiring how Jackson's potty training was going because she is trying to train her daughter as well. So, instead of just responding to her email (because I know she reads my blog as well), I thought I would let EVERYONE know too.

Let me just tell you... um.. it's going. I guess the best way to put it is, we are still doing the "introduction" stage. If there is one of those. When we first started all of this, he really was just using it in the evenings when HE decided he was ready to "pee-pee in the potty". The few times that I tried to get him to go in the morning, his quick answer was NO! and he would start crying when I started to take his PJs off. And... since I get up at the very last minute in the mornings, I didn't have time to fight with him. So, I just got him ready and he peed in his diaper.

This week, I have started making him go on our toilet. Monday morning, I woke him up and told him that we needed to go try and pee-pee in the potty. I thought he would react a little better than he did because he did use the big toilet the night before. I told him that I wanted him to try the big boy potty, and the no's started. We got into the bathroom and he started crying... But, I was persistent. He is not going to win this battle. I got his clothes off and his diaper and sat him on the toilet backwards. I had a thought that it may help him to see the process. He fought me getting on the toilet and wanted me to pick him back up. I just stayed close to him and told him that he was going to be okay and that he wasn't going to fall. It didn't help. The only thing that did was to find something to divert his attention -- the water drop on the back of the toilet lid in front of him. He finally stopped crying. I looked at him and told him that he could pee-pee in the hole. "Wouldn't it be so great if you did that?!" He sat for a minute and then wwaallaahh! He did it and was rewarded with "fruit snacks".

He does so much better in the evenings because he goes right after his bath. I have been telling him that he cannot pee-pee in the bathtub. So in his little rebelious mind, he gets to giggling whenever I am getting ready to put his towel on because he wants to pee in the tub. I tell him that he better not do it and then we run to the potty. And he goes like a charm. No crying, no fighting, nothing...

I have been persistent every morning this week to get him to go. We start with the tears, then go into the diversion, and then he gets happy again, and then he goes. After that he gets really excited because he gets to flush and get fruit snacks (with a hand washing in between there). Like I said though, the evenings are so much easier... with peeing...

Tuesday night, he went hiding to his room to go poopy. I heard him start to grunt and I told him the he needed to poopy on the potty. He said "LEAVE ME ALONE, MOMMY!" "GO!" and was shooing me away with his hand. AHHH!

I bet you are wondering about mid-day. You see, day care doesn't allow me to train him cold turkey with underpants. They want pull-ups and I am boycotting them. I personally think they are the worst things ever made as it is just another form of a diaper that leaks like a swimmer. So, during the day he is still in a diaper. His teacher told me the other day that she asked him if he wanted to go to the potty because he had a dry diaper all day and he said no... so she didn't take him. Hmmm... he is going to tell you no... even if he has to go... but that is something I have to take up with his teachers. Right now though, I am still just trying to get him to LIKE going to the bathroom. I am not going to push so much for day care to start helping me until I can get him to go at home. Happily.

I am sorry if this posting seems a little choppy. There was so much I wanted to say but I just am so tired and not really in the mood of typing. So, I hope you get the jist of what I am trying to say and hopefully when we meet again, you will have fun reading what I have written to you. Goodnight.