Every time I have broached the potty subject with Bam over the last year, he has told me it's too hard, that he can't do it and lately, that he will when he's bigger, but he's smaller now. But, I decided since his diaper was often dry when he woke up in the morning and because he's 3 1/2 and he (I want this too) wants to go to preschool in the fall, that I needed to push the subject a bit. So, I waited until I had a week of minimal places I had to be or that I had to leave him (I don't think it's fair to push my potty training dilemmas onto another mother who has graciously agreed to watch my children). We had talked a lot about what rewards would be his when he had success (bakugan guys) and helped him pick out some cool underwear (lightning mcqueen, Thomas the Train, Mickey Mouse, etc) and we woke up Monday morning to begin.
Perhaps I am reticent because potty training Bam's older brothers was a years long nightmare of washing 7-10 pairs of small underwear and shorts each day, mopping floors and shampooing rugs, whining and cajoling on my part and little or no success on their part for a very long time. Why wouldn't I want to begin that again?
Imagine my surprise (and unending gratitude) to find that things have been remarkably easy. Yes he had a half-dozen accidents the first day. But he seemed to grasp the concept by the latter part of the day and the second day, he went largely accident free. (and we went to Costco, Target and the library to boot!) Today, we had to take the big kids for an appointment and then to school. Once again, he has been largely accident free. But the wonder of all this isn't just that he has been accident free at my prodding (though that would be unusual and wonderful enough), but that he has taken the initiative so quickly and I only rarely even need to remind him to go. This is a gift and a blessing from on high, because nothing else would have brought such wonder to my home! (and you are blessed because I am NOT the sort of mom to take a picture of Bam seated on his "throne" to illustrate this post)
3 comments:
Hooray! When I realized this post was about potty training, I thought, "Oh no! Angie does NOT need another hard-to-train child." I'm so glad that Bam is hopefully proving to be a much easier subject.
Yea for Bam!!! I hope he keeps it up so he can go to Preschool!!! and you can have a breather!!!
Hmm, I really take heart seeing that you have done this multiple times and this time around your child is 3 1/2. I am surrounded by people who have their child trained before 2 years old right now! And since my child is about twice as big as the kids that are his age, sometimes I feel silly that he is the only one still in diapers. But I feel like the experienced moms keep telling me to wait. So seeing that yours went well makes me feel like I'm still ok!
By the way - that Nigerian thing is crazy! And really annoying. Sort of like all the bugs we used to get before pest control. Only after they were gone do you realize how much it affected you and the things you have to alter in your daily life!
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