Hooray for no more diapers!! About a month ago I decided Kellan (and I) were both ready to begin the potty training process. I had not worked with him at all on using the potty, and he had never successfully used a potty before so I had no idea how smoothly it would go. I had heard stories of boys potty training much later than girls so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not a fan of dragging out potty training over the course of many months (purely for convenience sake!) so I waited until he was showing signs of readiness, brushed up on my potty teaching skills using methods from the "Potty Training in a Day" book and although I was a bit skeptical I prepared to spend a day committed to getting Kellan to use the potty successfully. We camped out in the living room with a bunch of books, a potty, some M&Ms for rewards, a bunch of juice and Alex's Care Bear that he selected to be our "practice doll" and got to work!
It took a while for him to successfully go the first time in the potty, but after that we had a full day with NO accidents! I was really shocked. With the days that followed we tried to spend a chunk of time each day, hanging out with a potty nearby so he would have easy access when the urge came, and he really did well. He was very quickly able to spend his time at home in underwear--I wasn't quite brave enough to venture out right away without a pull-up--but within 2 weeks we took a trip to Philly with our little potty packed in the trunk, and he stayed dry for the entire 5 1/2 hr trip! He told me when he needed to go, we pulled over, he went, and we kept right on going. We were doing great with #1 but he was still having difficulty mastering going #2. You could tell he was trying to figure out the different sensation and he was a bit embarrassed when he would go in his underwear or pull-up. He had success with #2 on the potty at my parents' house so we tried to praise him a bunch for it.
After a few weeks I started keeping him in underwear as long as he was with me--when he went to the gym, church, or MOPS I would stick him in a pull-up for the convenience of the workers who were taking care of him just in case he had an accident, but I soon realized he would get lazy with the pull-up on so he was better off in underwear.
In the past few days he has finally begun mastering #2 in the potty--my neighbor Desiree showed him how to sit backwards on the potty (a fine art only possible when you remove your underwear and pants!) and he enjoys being able to see the fruits of his labor fall into the toilet :). He manages to shimmy his way onto the toilet and does his business, then calls me when he's done so I can assist with any clean up. Whatever works!!
(using the portable potty in Grammy & Granddad's garage--when you gotta go, you gotta go!)
So he is a potty trained boy now--he has really only had 2 or 3 accidents since wearing the underwear and I'm so happy that our days of diaper buying are done! (he is still wearing pull-ups and any leftover diapers for bedtime and naptime--I will probably try leaving him in underwear for his nap sometime soon to see how it goes--the bedtime can wait a bit longer!)
It's now December but I didn't want to forget to recap our Thanksgiving holiday. We were able to go up to Eagle Rock to spend a few days with my family--making it even more special was the fact that BOTH of my grandfathers were able to be there to spend it with us! I was so glad for the kids to be able to spend time with great-granddad again and to meet great-granddaddy for the first time--such a special memory we will always be able to have! I don't have any pics of the entire family on my camera (hopefully Renee will post some soon, hint hint!)
