It's My Potty! (episode 3)

It is day 2 on this journey and I have to say, I probably didn't focus as well today as I could have. Life happened and let's face it, there is no stopping life when it has a plan. I ended up having to break rule #1 and take Jeffrey to the store. Turns out he really wanted to go to the store so I asked him to sit on the potty before we went and sure enough, he did! The only thing I didn't factor in was that he would sit there for over an hour (which really cut into my shopping trip and my ADHD didn't help either). Oh well, he sat and it was a good step.



So after a day of chaos and me trying to figure out how to do this with a very curious Bubba and nosey Molly I realized that the methods I had read and heard about were NOT working for us. By the time we realized an accident was happening and I put Bubba in a contained area, caged Molly and returned to the scene of the crime it was too late to incorporate the potty! This was NOT working and I was getting very frustrated. I realized that I needed a plan that fit our situation. After sitting and thinking for a few min I remembered something our doctor told us at Jeffrey's last well visit. He said his son was very difficult to train and they had to create a whole system that worked for him. I figure if a pediatrician had problems then it is perfectly acceptable for ME to have problems! So I decided to steal his method and see if it would work for us.

I brought the potty out to the living room, set up the play pen, got some liquids poured into various cups and told Jeffrey to pick out a movie. While I was setting everything up I realized I lost Bubba. I looked around and guess where he was? On the potty. Ummm, wrong kid! Then I thought to myself, doesn't really matter who it is that potty trains just so long as someone does. OK, new plan! Here is a potty, someone come sit and use it please! Yeah, that plan didn't work too well either, oh well.



Anyhoo, Jeffrey chose Toy Story 2 as his movie for tonight. I loaded it up and told him that his bottom was like a button. When it was on the potty the TV would play the movie but if he got up, mommy would hit pause. He threw a fit in the beginning but when he realized that mommy wasn't going to change her mind he sat on the potty and drank his drinks, ate his bread with butter and watched the entire movie without ever once getting up. Our end result? He actually pottied in the potty, Bubba didn't play in it, Molly didn't drink it and we all celebrated! It isn't how I pictured this process going (especially since we don't watch very much TV in our house) but it seems to work when I'm home alone with everyone and it kept me feeling more in control of my surroundings which allowed me to hang on to as little sanity as I have left (and let's face it, when you are as low on sanity as I am it is important to hang onto what ya got!). In the end, I put today in the victory column and have to rejoice that we have a doctor who is willing to admit when he struggles and share his successes as a parent, not just a professional.

I don't know how tomorrow will go, I can only get excited about the journey. Here is hoping for another day with stickers in the potty box (and another day where Bubba doesn't require a bath due to his choice of places to play).