Misadventures of Potty Training

Potty training.

A task I really really dislike.  I mean really really.

By the time MC was Little Man's age, we'd already gone several failed rounds of (no pressure) potty training.  That in itself wasn't so bad.  But oh did I want her to have this potty thing down before her new sibling arrived! Then, over Christmas (when she was 2 years, 4 months old), as she was home all the time from Mother's Day out and I wasn't in the office so often, it just began to click.  Hallelujah! Just in time for her brother to come along in early January.

You do know "they" recommend NOT potty training your child during big life changes right?

We found out why.

Everything went smashingly for about 6 weeks.  And then she realized that the cute little baby was here to stay. Suddenly potty time became a power struggle that NEVER ended.  Every suggestion I made as to tending to her business was met with, "But I don't HAVE to go potty," often followed by, "I'm DRY!"  We're talking complete meltdowns about not having to go potty. And what would you know, but in five minutes time her panties were wet. The kicker? She could walk around in wet panties all day without a care.

Sure we have had stretches where she's done really well. I've tried every trick in the book, and most things worked for a little while. We've always tired to lay on the praise, but really, it can be hard to get excited about your 4-year-old putting her tinkle in the potty. I guess I should be thankful; I recently came across a thread of frustrated parents who have problems getting their 4-and-a-half-year-old children to poop in the potty.  At least MC has always done that bit of business without any prompting or backsliding. Still, I felt like such a failure.

After a recent stretch of constant accidents, a lot of frustration, tantrums, and not much to praise, I finally stumbled across an idea; make potty times house rules.  I'd struggled with this before as I was thinking in terms of CLOCK times rather than the natural routine of our day.  We had a couple of rules already, such as, we ALWAYS potty when we get up in the morning and we ALWAYS potty before bedtime, so it was an easy extension to create an additional rule about potty time. Now we also ALWAYS potty after meals and snacks.

The new rule garnished instant success.


Of course, we have still had damp panties here and there, and I generally have to remind her of the rules, along with keeping snack and meal times consistent, but the battle is over. While Charlotte may still occasionally whine about the rules, she willingly follows them without a fight.  She's happy to have successful days consistently, and I'm happy to have ample opportunities to praise her with genuine enthusiasm.

It seems so simple and logical now, why did it take so long for me to figure this out?

Next up? Frederick. I'm pretty sure I'm going to wait until he asks for underwear himself.  Even if that means he's five.  No more battles at our house, thanks!

Random Ramblings

Have I mentioned that Frederick loves tractors?  Lucky us, our daily route when we are out and about takes us through a roadway construction zone! Yes, I find the closure of our super convenient to the rest of town freeway ramp to be a bit trying, but the extra five minutes driving through a maze of tractors, dump trucks, and cranes brings pure joy to the little man.  So much joy, that we have to "wave good-bye to the tractors" as we pass to keep him from throwing a tantrum when I won't go back to see them again.  Oh yes, before I learned this trick, we spent many a car ride with a screaming two year old in the back seat, "Go that way, Mommy! Go that way! See tractors!"

With everyone healthy, and my car to drive I finally made it back to the gym yesterday.  Sadly we were all well enough to head back again a couple of weeks ago, but I lost my card - I had to get up courage to tell them that I've lost my key card for something like the 5th time.  If the Y starts charging for replacement cards, it is my fault and I am sorry.

And to vent about the parking garage.  When we arrive before 5 there is a ton of available parking.  We even have a usual spot one floor up, right next to the stairs. By the time we are leaving, though, every available spot is gone.  Yesterday, before I had even opened my car doors someone pulled up and waited.  Seriously?  There is nothing I hate more than someone waiting for me to leave my parking spot.  What is the right thing to do? Hurry at all costs? Or take my sweet time? Who picks to wait for the lady with two kids, anyway? To make things worse I even had a few items to return to my friend Jill (who met us at our car), a check to write her, and a late birthday present to open from her, in addition to the usual buckle the kids, distribute snacks and get all of our things into the car, so that fell into taking my time no matter what.  Should I have yelled to the other car to carry on looking?  Lie and say we aren't leaving? Warn him that it might be a while? Or just laugh at him for making a bad choice.  Seriously the waiting car thing is such a pet peeve of mine.  Like a frazzled mom needs someone hurrying her along.  

And that has been our week thus far, in a nutshell.

Backyard Shenanigans

Whenever it isn't raining (which didn't seem to happen very often in February), I like to kick the kids outside to play.  Sometimes they bounce on the trampoline, ride bikes and trikes on the driveway, or even climb all over their tiny play gym. (or whatever you call it)  I spent most of the time the other day trying to get two kids in the same frame looking at the camera without much luck. The photo below is the only one where they are both looking my way. 

A trip down the slide backwards gave Charlotte the giggles.

Frederick seems to think he's part monkey.  He climbs all over this thing.  At first I used to freak out a little when he would climb ON TOP OF the tunnel to get to the other side, but I eventually gave up.   

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid's facial expressions?  He is just full of them.