Well people, the time has come for the potty to be introduced into our lives. Join us as we document our journey.
While I was pregnant with Nathaniel I decided that I wanted to try to potty train Jeffrey so that we only had one kiddo in diapers. We went out and bought a really cool potty, some books, some undies, and a cool water cup. We wrapped everything in really cool paper and made the special day a big celebration. The two proud parents and one excited child quickly unwrapped everything and pulled the potty out of the box. At that point we went from being a happy trio to a happy duo and a very terrified child. If a stranger had walked in on us at that point you would have thought that we were torturing our child by forcing him to watch Barney or something! He started screaming and crying and hiding his head in his hands. David and I quickly changed the topic to something else but Jeffrey was done for the night at that point. There was no reasoning, talking to or comforting him. We had scared our kid for life by showing him a potty. This was the point in which we realized that maybe he wasn't as ready as we were. We decided to turn the potty into a step stool for brushing our teeth and forget the subject for a while.
Several months after moving to FL David and I decided to try the potty with Jeffrey again. We had lived in the house for a while, we were stable and things were pretty slow so we figured it was a great time to give it a whirl (or a flush, hehehehe)! Again, we did the special celebration and this time Ba and Grandpa bought a CARS potty that even had sound effects! For sure this would be the time that we had success! During the "unwrapping" we were once again faced with a terrified child (and his terrified brother who couldn't figure out what we were doing to Jeffrey!) As if it were a rerun of previous events, we packed it in realizing that Jeffrey was on his own time schedule and that the potty would happen in due time.
We are now about a year and a half after our first attempt and we are ALL finally ready. For the past couple of days we have been counting down our diapers. I told Jeffrey that when we ran out he had to wear "big boy pants" and use the potty. Every day we counted our diapers and I think in his mind he was able to visually see how much time he had. Tonight we counted and realized that tomorrow would be THE DAY! Oh how mommy and daddy have waited for this moment (and so have our wallets!)! After nap time I took him to Walmart and we bought some new undies, because the origonal ones that we bought are now 2 sizes too small. He chose CARS and Toy Story!!! On the way to go eat dinner with daddy he counted his new undies and laid them all out flat. He was naming the characters and telling me what colors he saw on them. He was ever so excited. When we got to David's work the first thing Jeffrey did was say, "Look daddy! Pants!" David celebrated with him and asked him a few questions and Jeffrey just beamed with pride! You could just see on his face that he was ready to make this big step.
On the way home from Sikorsky Jeffrey talked non-stop about how he had to poopy in the potty and how he got to wear "big boy pants" and he sang a song about it. The song went something like this, "PANTS! PANTS! PANTS! PANTS! FAST CAR, BUZZ, WOODY, REX, FAST CAR. PANTS! PANTS! PANTS!" When we got home he asked if he could wear a pair of his pants. I'm a little grossed out that I have not washed them but I couldn't turn him down (I have the other pairs in the washer right now).
So far he has worn his "pants" for over an hour and no accidents. We have the potty ready to go in the event we need to run and I'm so proud of him. I am trilled that we waited until he was ready so that maybe this will be an exciting journey with less stress than joy.:-)
Till tomorrow my friends, (I'm sure this will be quite an adventure).
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