Even though the potties from amazon have yet to arrive, I decided to go ahead with potty training this morning. After dropping the girls off at school, we came back home and I let the boys each pick out a pair of ‘big boy underwear’ to put on. I gated off the great room in the hopes that accidents would be contained to the hard floor. Then I set the oven timer for 30 minutes, the plan being that I’d have the boys sit on the potty every half hour to start getting used to it.
The first time the timer went off, things were going swimmingly. No accidents, and Ryan came with me happily to give it a try. “I on da potty!” he announced loudly, his legs swinging back and forth over the sides of the toilet.
It was then that I noticed something that was bound to become a problem sooner or later. I am no expert in potty training, or in physics, but I know just enough about boy parts and gravity to deduce that when little boys sit on the potty, their pee is not going to go where I want it to naturally. With little girls, you have them lean forward a little, and I’m guessing there is some sort or trick with boys too (or maybe not, and that is why all my friends with boys say their bathroom floors are perpetually covered in urine). For now, I don’t have to worry about it because the point is just for them to sit on the potty and get used to it.
Anyway, we sang the ABCs, twice, and then Ryan and I both clapped on account of him being such a good boy. I helped him off, washed his hands, and gave him his M&M reward for sitting on the potty. I asked Joel if he was ready to sit on the potty. He side eyed me and scowled at the same time. “No. No potty.”
I re-set the oven timer and did some dishes while the boys watched Kung Fu Panda. When I turned off the water, I heard a noise that sounded alarmingly like splashing. I found Ryan, sitting in a puddle, slapping his hands in it (?!?!). “Water!” he shouted, gleefully.
I explained that it wasn’t water and that he had a pee-pee accident. Once he was aware of this, he was happy to help clean up and put on clean pants. Apparently all the cleaning made him a bit peckish, because then he asked to sit on the potty again and delightedly ate another M&M.
Joel saw him eating the M&M, and asked for one. I told him of course he could have one. He’d just have to sit on the potty first. “No. No potty,” he replied decisively.
After several more trips to sit on the potty (Ryan), two accidents during snack time (Ryan and Joel), Ryan was definitely catching on to the whole M&M thing. So much so that he visited the potty three times in the span of 2 minutes. That’s when I started making him sit for longer amounts of time than just the ABC song. Not so ironically, that’s also when he stopped asking to go every 30 seconds.
It was minutes later that a little boy came over to me and asked to sit on the potty. I looked carefully at his face, because I thought the little boy would be Ryan, but it was in fact Joel. I checked. Twice. And just like that, I had two boys willing to sit on the potty (in exchange for chocolate bribes).
That was plenty of success for one day. Not wanting to push my luck, I stuck both boys back in diapers and put them down for a nap.
Love to fill their butts
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