Potty training: what's wrong with the diaper?



I pooped in the potty!

This potty training business is exhausting and, before you offer up any tips, let me tell you we've heard plenty of advice from nearly everyone we know...and even some from complete strangers, too.  My personal favorite is the parents who tell us "I don't know how it happened.  s/he just came home one day and said s/he was done with diapers.  And we never went back.  That was when s/he was about 18 months old.  Hardly ever had an accident."   Hmmmm...those people either have incredibly poor memories and are breezing over the traumatic instances of potty training, their kid is a savant, or, if this story is indeed true, they can suck it.

If you're at our house during this time and see one of us running through the house with Boden tucked under our arm frantically racing around from the upstairs to the downstairs (and back)looking for either the potty seat, the froggy potty, the stickers, some trucks and/or reading material, you know we're deep into a Code Poo event: we've determined a pee or poop is coming and now we're just trying hard to make sure it ends up in a potty.  When you hear cheers, high fives and a toilet flush, we were successful.  It's an adrenaline rush, for sure.  We need this commitment to success to transfer to Boden, though, because right now, we're trying harder than him and he's just a passenger: sometimes indulging us and sometimes he's just not that into it.

Mommy, don't pee on the floor.

Big boy underwear!

Now, that's something I can live up to.  We've been dealing with a lot of potty talk lately.  I'm done with diapers and strongly suggesting Boden use the potty but there is plenty of resistance on his end.  To make him more excited about the potty and getting rid of diapers, I let Boden pick out "big boy" underpants.  There's not a ton to choose from at Target when you're searching for underpants for little boy buns, but out of several cute patterns, Boden opted for the plain white briefs.  I talked them up and finally got him to put them on a week later.  Of course, putting underwear on is a big responsibility--you can't pee in them.  I thought this warning was a good idea, but now he's a bit scared of wearing the underwear:

BB: "Mommy, I don't pee in my underwear."
Me: "That's right, you need to let me know if you have to go potty and then we'll pull your underwear down and sit on the potty."
BB: "I better take off my underwear.  No pee in them."
Me: "You can leave them on.  Just let me know if you have to go potty.  We can go sit on it now if you have to go."
BB: "No.  Take them off.  Get my diaper on."
Me: Sigh.

Round 1 goes to Boden.

A pee pee in the potty

After hours of sitting in front of the potty with Boden perched on top of it "reading" books and talking away about cars, books, and bunnies, and whatever else pops into his head, I finally experienced a bit of the pay off--we got a successful "pee pee in the potty". 

I think Boden was incredibly surprised since sitting on the potty usually ends with me giving up with an "All done?", but this time, there was pee!  It was likely pure coincidence--we haven't been able to replicate the results for over a week now, so I still have a lot of sitting and waiting to do with him, but there's a glimmer of hope that eventually pee and "pooch" (a Boden-ism for poop) will end up in the toilet bowl where it belongs. 

B is for Blueberry

and Boden, of course, and blue baby buns.

Since Boden only likes a handful (two...maybe three) of fruits--and blueberries top his faves'list--they are on the menu often, which means his diapers often have blue "packages" in them. No biggie--he's getting plenty of fiber and antoxidants, so why not let him have them often, right? Well a couple days ago, during bathtime, Todd and I noticed all these blue packages were turning Boden's li'l buns blue...like Violet in Willy Wonka, except he's turning blue from the bottom up. Oops. Guess we need to cut back a little on the b-berries.

Holy crap!

Boden used to have the perfect poop schedule: once every day to day and a half.  I don't think an adult would even complain about that.  In the past few weeks, though, some gastrointestinal shift of seismic proportions has obviously occurred because the perfect poop schedule is gone and has been replaced with new poop motto:  Poop early.  Poop often.

In terms of volumetrics, I'm not sure he's even taking in as much as he's putting out.  And you'd think we'd get some reprieve during sleep, but no, there is no off-limits time anymore.  In fact, he's got a roaring case of monkey-butt because a poop slipped by undetected during a naptime.  I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how it is even possible to poop while sleeping and, in an instance where your bowels are saying "hey, man, it's happening with or without you", shouldn't you at least stir from your slumber?

This new lack of order has got us all baffled and we're constantly on poop watch.  Smelling and peeking at Boden's buns whenever doubt crosses our minds.  Poor guy.  We've armed ourselves with a giant tub of Boudreaux's Butt Paste and are hoping this phenomenon passes quickly.

Potty talk

I'm not sure why Boden is fascinated with the toilet, but he is. If he can play in it, around it, or with toilet accessories (TP, plunger, scrub brush...etc.), he is happy.

I did anticipate this inexplicable toilet intrigue and had Todd buy toilet lid locks in preparation...he bought them and they are not doing their job in the bathroom drawer. Granted, we don't like the particular style he got, but I also don't like fishing toy trucks and tub toys out of the toilet bowl. Luckily, it's always been into "fresh" water, but really, how clean is that place? If I thought the toys wouldn't get caught in the pipes, I'd probably just say goodbye to whatever found it's way in there.

I had gotten used to not being able to use the facilities without having at least one dog in the bathroom with me, but now a veritable crowd forms as soon as I'm seated. Boden comes in and plays with the toilet lid--banging it repeatedly against my back (that feels nice); Sloan, my long-time bathroom buddy busies herself with nosing into whatever Boden is doing, and Bueller wanders in and out groaning for attention or disgusted by this display of chaos--I'm not sure which. Sometimes, it's a treat to go to work where I know no one will join me in the bathroom stall and I can pee in peace.

Where's my blue ribbon

Changing Boden's diapers these days is like catching a greased pig at the County Fair--nearly impossible and quite a spectacle. I don't change him on the changing table because I'm convinced he's going to spin off. He's like the Tazmanian devil (the cartoon, not the real thing)--he spins and twists to reach for anything/nothing (grunting and babbling all the while). I wish I had a video of me changing his diaper this evening--he was standing up, then sitting down, then laying down, then crawling away; meanwhile the diaper was completely off, then just hanging on him without the tabs open, then half of it was on, but one li'l cheek was hanging out, then there was butt paste all over me and his foot, then I finally got the other diaper tab on...uh, it was exhausting--and I laughed my way through it :)

Picture: This weekend, Boden got his first dip in the lake. Todd found a little infant raft (with a canopy, yea!). He screamed at first, but got the hang of it. Boden floated, Todd sat in the water with him and Sloan swam around them chasing the sun fish.