For a long time, my boys showed no potty readiness cues at all. This was fine with me. I know some people who have done & have read about Elimination Communication, but this was not for me. I am fine with diapers, and I have always dreaded potty training. In fact, my plan was to keep my boys in cribs and diapers until they started Kindergarten, but they have other ideas! ;)
The first time I remember trying to teach Matthew the concept of "poo poo", Matthew caught right on, and kept repeating "poo poo", "poo poo" with a huge smile. However, they still never told me when they had a dirty diaper.. in fact they didn't care at all & would end up with diaper rashes while they were playing sometimes :(
Recently though, the boys have been reporting their dirty diapers to me, and have been excited to sit on the potty (usually with no result, because they would ask after they had already gone). The last few days I have started putting them on the potty routinely at the same times each day. I have tried this off and on before, but with no success.
The turning point was Sunday while I was at work. I called Alan during my lunch break to see how he was doing. I heard Matthew in the background demanding "POTTY" and - when his request was not honored immediately yelling "WAHH. POTTY.........WAHHH!! POTTY....... WAHHH!!". I couldn't help but laugh (since I wasn't there). Although this was not a very respectable way to ask.. I'm pretty sure that was a definite readiness cue for potty training. (Alan did let him on the potty after we hung up.) When I got home that night, I set the boys up on their potties before bedtime. Matthew got so excited about every drop, he would gasp, then rush to dump the contents out in the big potty. He would come back, squirt a few more drops, then rush again to dump it out! He did this about 15 times. The little man was excited. Adam got more excited about the whole thing when he saw what a big deal we were making about it with Matthew, so he started going too (but actually emptying out his while bladder.. which was nice :P)
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| Our two big boys. |
Monday they had lots of successful potty times, but still way too many trips to dump out the contents, so I switched them to the big potty. (Which almost swallowed them up :P) This morning we made a special trip to Target to buy a potty seat for the big potty. We have been using that all day using stickers as rewards. They have pooped or peed every time I put them on. Then they stick their own sticker on the paper I have taped to the lid of the toilet. I am surprised they actually wait their turn. They still aren't dry in between potty trips, but I feel like there is no turning back on this path! Wish us luck!
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| Lots of trips to the potty today! |
