Not every kid is "ready" at the same time. Sometimes they aren't ready until they are nearly four or five years old; sometimes they are ready as early as a year and a half old, maybe even sooner than that. When a child chooses to be ready is not a reflection of their intelligence, so don't worry if your kids decide to wait a while before they really want to learn.
Now, maybe I'm going into this unprepared, or maybe I don't want to try to do this anyone else's way and just want to figure it out for myself, but I have not read a single book, magazine, or article about potty training. I haven't done my typical "I want to learn this" Google search, and I haven't asked anyone how they did it. I want to take this journey with my kids and do it our way, however that may be. We're coming along nicely so far, David using his potty nearly 75% of the time, and Levi still showing interest in it despite not really knowing what to do with it. My children have rewarded me with lots of fun stories about this adventure we're on, some of which I'd like to share with you today.
- We bought the training potty when David was 2 1/2 years old, right when he started showing signs of interest towards what goes on in the bathroom. He was trying to look into the toilet whenever someone was using it, and fascinated by the roll of toilet paper on the wall. Once we had the potty, he would sit on it whenever someone else was going to the bathroom, but only rarely did he actually pee in it. When he did, he would be cheered and commended and rewarded, and hugged and kissed and high-fived. Which he loves.
- Levi doesn't actually know how to use the potty yet, but boy! is he interested in it. He likes to go into the bathroom and sit on the potty, though he doesn't take his diaper off. The few times I've taken his diaper off for him and set him on the potty, he gets this look on his face that seems to say "oh, um, I wasn't really interested in taking it this far just yet, wow this is awkward... sorry mom..." It's okay though. He'll get there.
- We started David in pull-ups last year, and I'm glad we did. When he has to go potty, it's much easier for him to take off on his own so there's no delay in him being able to go. However, I definitely don't recommend using plain old pull-ups at night, because if he poops in it, well, let's just say it's not my favorite thing to change.
- David is so excited to make sure we know that he's going potty. Every single time he has to go, he will take off his pull-up, then find someone and tell them "going pee" or "got poop" a million times until they acknowledge it. It's cute at first, but it does get old fast.
- The first time he pooped in his potty, I'm not sure WHAT he was trying to do afterwards. All I know is that he walks out of the bathroom with poop on his butt, legs, hands, arms, and a bit in his hair. I rush him to the bathroom where I then find it covering the floor, training potty, actual toilet, the side of the tub, and a bit on the wall. It seemed as if he had been using it as finger paint. Not. Fun. At. ALL. Glad he tried though I suppose. If I had to find the silver lining of that situation...
- He recently began actually pooping in his potty a lot more. He's VERY proud of that. Every time he does, even the smallest nugget of anything solid, he takes the bowl out of the training potty and parades it around the house, showing anyone around that he did poop.
- He even knows how to wipe himself after he poops! He gets the pack of wipes I keep in the bathroom and wipes himself. Of course, he's not an expert at it just yet, so I help him finish up. I try to start just a few swipes before he does, so he gets less on his hands (he doesn't get it on his hands often but it's not fun cleaning when he does).
- Once, he came out into the living room to tell me he did poop. He had a wipe with him, and told me he was wiping. I told him I was proud of him, he should do that in the bathroom, and make sure he gets all the poop! I was about to get up and follow him to help, when he starts trying to wipe (standing up straight) but he couldn't get the wipe between his little cheeks, so he grunted, saying "it's stuck!" I laughed so hard that he thought it was a joke and did it repeatedly for nearly 5 minutes.
- As I pointed out a while ago, David also knows how to take the bowl from his training potty, which he does every time he goes, to empty it into the big potty. Very nice, less clean up for mommy... sometimes. Not a fun clean up when he misses.
- The biggest horror story of all (even worse to me than the poop-painting fiasco) is one in which I was a bit more personally involved. As a loving mother, and an honest blogger, I'm not ashamed to share this bit with you today. Embarrassing or not, every parent has a story that shows utter devotion to their children. As my best friend said when telling me her own embarrassing story, "After this, no one can say I don't love my kids." David was playing outside one day, when he comes in holding up his index finger. He comes over to me, shoving it in my face, and muttering something that sounded like "boo boo". He was using his own little language (as he often does when speaking fast or excitedly) so all I could make of it was that he hurt his finger, had a boo boo, and needed me to kiss it so my awesome mommy-healing-power could make it all better. I kissed it... and felt something transfer from his fingertip to my lips. I took a closer look at his finger and saw that it had something brown on it, and carefully, being sure not to get any in my mouth, asked him what it was. "Mommy... poop!" I can't tell you how fast I ran to the kitchen to wash my mouth off, trying to breath through my nose, stay conscious of my tongue at all times, and keep my lips puckered out. I scrubbed it off with soap and hot water, and only then realized he still had it on his finger! As I washed him up, I finally admitted to myself what just happened. I just kissed my son's poop. I'll tell ya what, I really do love my kids.
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