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| If only it really was all smiles... |
Sorry, that's a whole other post...
As some of you already know, Ollie has been using the potty off and on for about a year now. (Yes, a year, and he is still not fully potty trained.) About 98% of the time he only uses the potty because we ask him if he needs to go... For a while he was using the potty as an excuse to get out of doing something (bedtime), but has since learned new tricks for that, so he rarely asks to go. Recently, he has also been using the potty at school which lets me know, IT'S TIME!
I learned last week, if he has to go, and his diaper is off, he will go without being asked, so being the lazy mother that I am, I kicked off the 72 hour adventure with a free ballin' boy. That's right, I'd rather risk the house getting hosed, then having to CONSTANTLY ask him if he needs to go...
Three hours, four hundred trips to the potty and five rolls of toilet paper later, I was feeling very proud of my little guy. Every two minutes, he was off and running to let three drops out, then declare a victory. We would do the potty dance and move on... for two minutes until his next trip. I couldn't tell if he was stoked he could go, or if all that air made him feel like he had to go.
Either way, he was going.
By the time FTD got home Friday night, Ollie was a potty maniac. Albeit a streaking one. FTD was a little leery about the diaperless adventure, but he soon saw how good Ollie was at going on his own. Ollie was great, he even washed and dried his hand EVERY TIME! Day one was a successes in my book!
Day two was more of the same; diaperfree and wild with the potty. Until, we had to go out to an Oktoberfest party at the local German club. Still the ever lazy mother, I slapped a diaper on him, and off we went...
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| Good times. |
So here is where we are after a weekend of focused training:
1. Ollie is happy to go as long as there's not the convenience of a diaper. Which means, he knows what he needs to do, he's just as lazy as his mommy.
2. Potty training is not for lazy people. It takes work on both parts. If you want to push your child to train before he/she is flat out asking to use the potty, then you are going to have to be just as dedicated as you want your child to be.
3. We are still in diapers. Though, when we are home he is not! I'm trying to teach him how to pull up and down loose shorts. I figure snug fitting underwear might confuse him into thinking he can just go...
Biggest lesson learned:
Potty training takes a lot of work, dedication and stages. We started with just learning about the potty, then learning to notice the sensation, then using the potty when the mood hit... now we are onto getting his pants up and down... and me not caving and doing it for him. Even if it means he nearly pees on me trying to get his damn pants off.
I wouldn't say this weekend was a fail since Ollie is not fully trained, and Ollie certainly didn't fail since this was all my idea, and he did go like a thousand times. Could I have been more diligent? Absolutely. Am I going to stay on him? Absolutely.
Stay tuned... there's way more to this story...
If you have a potty training story, PLEASE SHARE!
