Potty Power

Meet Cornbread...son of Whitebread! LOL!

Yes, that is my child sitting on the toilet with a large piece of cornbread, looking like he's been picking up chicks on the beaches of Maui. The more I see our families grow the MORE I realize that the apples REALLY don't fall far from the trees (cough, cough...Reagan James & Katherine Schofield Yallaly...cough, cough)!

So, we're potty training...sigh....No really, it's going GREAT! I am THRILLED that we are down to one in diapers (since we'll be back up to two again in December...but why worry about that now...besides, they say that you can potty train girls quicker and easier...so Elora should be ready next week, right?!)

Before I dive into our full PT (potty training) philosophy and methodology, I want to make sure to point out that this is NOT our first potty training endeavor. Oh no...In fact, I decided that as SOON as Loki could walk, he could be potty trained. (I'm fairly certain I read that somewhere...probably on the Internet...and if it's on the Internet, it MUST be true, right?!). So, we purchased Potty Power, a silly DVD that does a surprisingly good job of explaining the whole potty process (and the tunes are pretty catchy, to boot). We also ordered The Potty Train, since the kid likes trains. Well, THAT was a COMPLETE waste of money. Do NOT order this book. Loki enjoys reading it, but the innuendos are SO vague that I can't imagine ANY child would understand that "When you feel like you've gotta go, take a ride on the potty train." has ANYTHING to do with putting excrement into a toilet. All that being said, we did have some MILD success when we first started. By "mild" I mean, he did pee on the potty ONCE and he would sit on the potty frequently (as long as he got an M&M each time he sat down).

We did the whole treat thing with each sit on the potty, until it became VERY apparent that we were being scammed. Loki would sit on the potty, demand a treat, promptly get off the potty, only to return to the potty minutes later and demand a second treat. TROUBLE.

Since that wasn't terribly successful, we sorta curbed our enthusiasm for PT'ing. However, that enthusiasm returned with reckless abandonment with each disposable diaper purchase (bear in mind that we don't actually purchase all that many disposables, either since we mostly do cloth).

So, we tried again, shortly before his second birthday because he started coming to us to tell us that he needed a diaper change. Now he didn't tell as ALL the time, just on occasion. But it was enough inspiration for me to purchase a NEW DVD and a NEW book. This time it was Elmo's Potty Time, which I actually enjoy. It's a GREAT supplement to Potty Power and a nice switch up for when the overly smiley Potty Power gal gets to be a little much...but I purchased it in conjunction with Too Big For Diapers, a Seasame Street board book ~ ANOTHER complete waste of cash! I'm just not impressed with the books. They don't seem to be able to convey the whole concept quite as well as the DVD's. And I will say that I am FAIRLY certain that it was all because of the DVD ground work we did that set us up for Loki being ready last month for all of this. But he WASN'T ready, then. He understood all of the concepts, knew that he should sit on the potty, got that "Big Kids" used the potty and "Babies" wore diapers, but with each extreme PT beginning he would literally BEG to have his diapers back. So, we gave them to him. I don't want to traumatize my kid (well, I'd like to keep it to a minimum, anyway).

But last month, Loki started telling us that he was "pooping" in his diapers and that's what did it for us. We were ready to do it AGAIN. Fortunately, I had JUST gotten my Parenting magazine in the mail and I found the "Extreme Potty Training" article and figure it was RIGHT up our alley. We didn't follow it to a T, we took ALOT of her recommendations and tried to modify her plan to accommodate for what she thought were short-comings and we couldn't be happier! On a VERY important note I should say that when we started for this FINAL round, we shifted to giving treats ONLY when something made it into the potty...and after the first couple of days, we stopped offering the treats all together. If Loki remembered and asked for one we would DEFINITELY give him one, but that didn't last long. And he doesn't even think about it any more. He just gets TONS of verbal praise and the occasional "Potty Cheer & Dance" from Momma!

We're 4 weeks in and we still have bad days but for the most part, Loki's making it to the toilet or a potty EVERY time! WOO HOO!

One down...two to go!

And on a side note...ladies, if you are using the potty seats that fit onto your adult sized toilet and you happen to share a bathroom with your toddler...be SURE to remove said seat before going to bed, or you'll be in for quite the surprise in the middle of the night!