"Mama, I need to take dorms of hands and then we eat 'cocholate'," Ivan informed me the other day waving his hands while sitting on the potty in the middle of the living room floor.
Dorms, dorms, dorms, I quickly scanned my mental library of Ivan talk, in a rushing effort to understand what he was referring to, before he got irritated that I didn't understand him.
"Dorms, mama, dorms, look," he repeated.
"Ah, germs, I see, you have germs on your hands," I replied relieved, realizing that he learned that word from the Potty Power video (which did wonders for helping to potty train him, and which he now wants to watch as much as Mickey, and which Didi and Baka had to go and retrieve from the library after they returned it, or experience a major melt down). (Or maybe it was the chocolate reward system that did the trick, who knows.)
"I need to wash my hands, and dorms go ocean," he explained.
"Look, at all those germs!"
"Mama, stop vikat [screaming], you'll scare them!"
It's been slightly over two weeks that Ivan's been potty trained. It seems so far away. I really thought it would never happen, and miraculously it did, practically overnight. Just like everyone said, when the child is ready, something just clicks.
Since then, he hasn't had any accidents, apart from the first week in daycare, when he refused to potty there. Last week and this week, he's gone potty in daycare without a problem.
He tells us when he needs to go, or more often, he runs to the bathroom by himself to go potty. In the morning, when he gets up and comes running to our bed to cuddle, he gets up and without saying anything goes to the bathroom. I hear him clanking, so I follow. But he puts his toilet seat insert on the bowl, takes off his pants and pees.
He actually now prefers the topilet seat insert to the potty. Andy showed him to go pee standing up, so he's started climbing onto the toilet seat to stand and aim the pee in the toilet bowl. It's a slightly dangerous and messy endeavor, but I help him along. While aiming for the bowl, he sprays the pee everyone, before being able to direct the pee properly. And that's why we have cleaning ladies: to clean the bathrooms so I'm not worrying about that. I'm afraid that while climbing onto the bowl with his pants around his ankles that he'll slip and hurt himself, possible even fall into the toilet. And that would suck, especially since of his concerns now has been about being flushed into the toilet (and going to the ocean).
The question now is what do we do when we're out or in a place with no bathrooms: I'm for him wearing underwear, and if he has an accident, oh well. We clean him up and change clothes. If we're in a place with no toilets--on a playground or in a park, like at the arboretum last weekend--do what we do with Mariposa: have him pee/poop behind a tree or near a trash can, then scoop it up and throw it out. He's too little to ask him to hold it in until we get to a toilet. Andy thinks this strategy is gross and not-American. He's appalled. He suggests Ivan wears pull ups in such occasions. But I'm against it. I think that it will just confuse him and, actually, infantilize him. He's so proud of himself for learning to use the potty and for being a big boy.
He's even stopped wetting himself while sleeping. For two weeks now, I've stopped putting pull ups on him during the afternoon nap. He hasn't had any accidents. Even when he wakes up in the morning, his pull ups is dry. I can't believe it. I've been thinking how it's possible to train someone not to pee in his sleep, considering that the person is asleep. But, apparently, whatever brain mechanism clicks on to use the potty during the day, seems to work during the night as well.
Now, the next hurdle is teaching him to wipe himself. Actually, it's more letting him practice than teaching him. He's seen what he needs to do. But just like learning to use utensils to eat, or get dressed and undressed, mastering that hand movement takes time. A lot of messy time.
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