The Plunge

I am so proud of my little man!!!!!!!!

Can you tell what we've been up to? That's right, be warned. Potty talk is upcoming. I wanted to record the last few weeks so that I will always have memory of this EXHAUSTING part of toddlerhood. We are officially a diaper free house!

A couple of months ago at bunco, a friend with a son about Benton's age set a date for a plan of June potty training. I kinda blew it off and thought our little man was too young, but then started looking at our calendar. We are both planning on going to Mother's Day Out in the fall, and I didn't want to try and potty train while being at school two days a week. We had plans for much of the summer, but had an opening at the beginning of June where we would be around for a few weeks. I decided to give it a try. What could it hurt? Benton and I started talking and looking about big boy underwear, and that "big boys put their pee and poop in the potty." We hadn't done a whole lot of going on the potty before, so we had a pretty clean slate to start with. I read my training book, rolled up all the rugs, covered the couch in towels, and decided Friday, June 4th was the day. Let me just say, I have never in my life been so thankful for concrete floors! I should have counted how many times I said "tell mommy if you have to potty" or "is Elmo/Big Bird/Oscar/Super Grover dry?" It would be scary.

I kept a log of our first day:

8:20-finish breakfast, throw away diapers, put on underwear for the first time

9:00-1st accident, puddle on floor, very confused little boy as to why he's wet

9:15-2nd accident, puddle on floor, refused to sit on potty, tells me "all done with potty"

9:25-3rd accident, refusal to sit on potty

9:45-4th accident, refused to get on potty, lots of tears

9:50-5th accident, very frustrated little man, refused to get on potty, bribed with raisins to sit on potty

10:45-little drop in underwear, we run and finished in potty, mommy claps and jumps up and down like a fool, eat more raisins

11:10-damp underwear, pees in potty, more celebrating and raisins

11:35-damp underwear, pees in potty, jumping and clapping

12:45-tells me he needs to potty and goes in potty, dry underwear for the first time, gets a prize

1:45-2:00-huge fit when I put him in bed, tells me he needs to potty, cries and refused to sit on potty, repeat 3 times, mommy and Benton both very tired

2:30-4:00-nap, wakes up dry

4:15-damp underwear, cries, refuses to sit on potty

5:00-tells me he needs to go, pees on potty

7:00-goes on potty with daddy, very proud of his new skill, mommy is very glad daddy is home

9:00-goes on potty with daddy, gets put in bed

9:00-10:00-tells us from bed he needs to go, put on potty, squeezes out a few drops

10:00-we tell Benton no more potty for the day, all go to bed exhausted

3:30 a.m.-wakes up wet, change sheets, back to bed

He woke up dry in the morning, and we took off from there. Since then, accidents have been almost nonexistent, and more my fault than his due to not being there when he needs to go. He wakes up from almost all naps dry, and one or two nights a week has been wet. We haven't had any wet underwear while awake in the past two and a half weeks. He is still working on telling the difference between gas and a bowel movement. We've done lot of tooting on the potty. So far, we've thrown away 5 pairs of underwear. I have drawn the line at cleaning poopy underwear. Gross!

I feel like we have visited every public bathroom in Abilene, two times over. Benton likes to get to flush new potties. He's done exceptionally well in public. We have yet to have an accident while out and about.

It has definitely been an adjustment to have a little one in underwear. We had many struggles in the beginning even getting him to sit on the potty. I tried to give him a choice of his little potty or the big potty. Benton has always been the one who told me when he needed to go. I learned pretty early on in the process that trying to make him sit there when he didn't need to go was unproductive. I like to be a mom in charge, so it's been difficult to be at the mercy of a two year old boy in many aspects. In about two seconds he learned that he could get up from bed, the table, or other places he was contained when he said he needed to go. Things have vastly improved as the newness has worn off. We are working on pulling our own underwear off, but he can climb on and off by himself.

I think it goes without saying, but I am so glad/thankful/proud/relieved/in awe that we only had one morning of accidents before he caught on. I was prepared for many days before he put two and two together.

Moments where I wanted to cry but laughed instead:

*Five days into potty 101, Hunter had a day off. We were both looking forward to sleeping in. 6:30 a.m. Fred wakes up Benton. I go and get him out of bed and climb back into mine. Pretty soon he's by my bedside and I hear a substantial stream hit the floor. I quickly jump up to put him on the potty to finish. He goes more in the toilet, then drops his lion he's holding into the pee. I then end the holding of anything as he does his business. As you can see from the above pictures, it was getting to be that he needed an entire zoo to witness his bathroom skills. Truth be told I was glad the lion fell in so I could have a legit reason to end all the audience.

*As we weaned from our potty seat, Benton was sitting facing forward on the big potty early one morning. I suddenly hear urine shooting into the door across the bathroom and puddling onto the floor. We weren't pointed down well and apparently he really needed to go. We now face backwards.

*While camping last weekend several of us came down with a mild stomach bug. Benton caught it too. Little man was supposed to be napping, and I caught wind of a strong odor coming from the back of the camper. Daddy quickly disposed of this nasty pair of underwear outside. Benton is a once every other day pooper, so I thought we were safe. A few minutes later, still trying to get him to go to sleep, we find another pair of underwear full. I carry him out for assistance removing the soiled pair. Jana, thinking he's just wet, yanks the offending underwear off before I can stop her. A large amount of poop splats on her foot, and on the floor of the RV. Stunned, I burst out laughing leaving Macey to help clean up the pooptastrophy we left behind.

Oh the adventures of being a mommy to a wonderful little boy!