Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Potty Training... at 20 months

Well, we are doing potty training little by little. I have heard many people say either do it or don't do it, you will confuse the child... all that stuff. I'm ignoring advice right now. :) As usual.

It's not full our potty training because Levi can't talk all the way. He knows what the potty is. He knows what going tee tee is, I think he knows what poop is too. He knows he doesn't like diapers. But, I'm not sure he likes training pants that much either. I wouldn't like them, they are Walmart and the elastic seems too tight and rough on his skin... Might need to go shopping for some softer version.

So, I put him on the potty after he wakes up usually, he hasn't pooped on it yet, but he has peed a couple of times and he receives lots of praise when he does. Then he gets to help dump it into the big toilet and flush it. He usually tells it "bye bye" ... which is adorable if you could just hear it in his sweet little voice.

Last night I put him on the potty for a little while. I don't ask him if he has to pee as much, I just say, "Now we're going to sit on the potty." Because usually he replies "no" to any question at all. It's his default. Also, I've heard some kids just don't want to stop doing what they are doing so they just hold it in. I want him to know that he HAS to sit on the potty sometimes and at least try. This is what we do, this is part of being a human being. So he sat on it for about a minute or two, played in the shower curtain, tried to get up and play in the bathtub, we talked about how when you have to go poo poo you have to push it out, we talked about going tee tee. Finally, there was nothing so I said, "Okay, I guess you don't have to go" and I let him go.  Of course then I was lazy and didn't put a diaper on him. I like to let him run free sometimes because I feel like it's good for his skin. He loves it too :).  Of course about ten minutes later I caught him peeing on the carpet. I don't think it was on purpose, it just sort of surprised him. He looked at me worried and I said, "whoops! We don't tee tee on the carpet, we go on the potty." So I took him to the potty and he didn't have to go anymore. Then I cleaned it up and we talked about how if he needs to go he can tell mommy and I will take him to the potty.

I never get angry at him or spank him for going on the floor. I don't stress out if he's not going on the potty. It's all just a trying game. We talk about everything. We talk about how we won't have to weary yucky diapers if he will go tee tee on the potty and how we will get to wear big boy pants like daddy when he stops going in his diapers. (He wants to be like daddy SOOO badly and it's adorable).

Yep, so that's my story.