Potty Training Continued

We're still working on potty training.

This week there were two breakthroughs after weeks of status quo. First, some three weeks ago, when Lisa and Sam came over, Sam had to potty and did it in the toilet, so I used the opportunity to show Ivan how Sam's a big boy who wears underwear and uses the potty.



That afternoon, after we changed pull ups, I asked Ivan whether we should put underwear on. I got an enthusiastic "yeah!" from him. I was excited. The next two times he had to pee pee, he told me and we made it to the potty in time. But for the subsequent few pees and a poop, he just did it in his pants, and didn't really anything.



Since that incident, I've been getting increasingly anxious about potty training him. It seems that he's the only kid left who hasn't been potty trained. The only other two kids I know of are Margaret in his daycare (but she's a bit younger and also a bit shy and awkward so it doesn't surprise me) and Robbie (who I'd think ought to be trained by now considering that Meg's a stay at home mom, which I associate with being able to fully focus on potty training. But Robbie must be like Ivan, totally not interested in it. I recall they tried to potty train him last summer when he'd pee his pants while at the playground and totally ignore it, just like Ivan. So it's really more a function of a kid than the mom.)



I've made it my goal to train him by the end of this month while I'm still on maternity leave. While I'm at home I have a four-day weekend stretch to train him when he's not in daycare, while when I return to work I'd only have the two weekend days to focus on it. And I really don't want to send him off to daycare without him being relatively solidly capable of telling the teachers that he needs to use the potty. I don't want to put him in a situation where he'll pee his pants in class, especially now when everyone else is potty trained. I think that would've been more acceptable in the two year-old classroom but not now.



So the two breakthroughs:

On Monday, after peeing his pants for the most of the day, while we were eating dinner, Ivan got up and ran to the potty, saying "brzo, brzo, brzo" (or some pronunciation of that word). I quickly handed off Allen to Andy, who was confused about the commotion, ran after Ivan to help him take off his pants and, voila, he peed in the potty.



I think what made a difference was the fact that we put to potty in the living room (in other words have the potty in the same room as he's in rather than in the bathroom) and talk it up as something he needs to do by himself. It's actually really odd that Ivan ,who wants to do absolutely everything "myself" and is rather self-sufficient, is so not interested in being potty trained. I must give credit to my dad for both of these suggestions, and I absolutely hate to admit it when he's right (and especially, since I'm constantly fighting with him over giving and not giving Ivan chocolate, etc.)

Then nothing happened during the week. He wore pull ups to daycare even though we told him that if he tells the teachers that he needs to potty that they will take him. But a note came home from Ms. Rosa saying that he didn't ask to potty even though they take him to the bathroom when all the kids go....

Yesterday, Friday, we spent the entire day practicing, but he peed and pooped his pants every time. However, unlike previous training attempts when he'd be oblivious to the fact that he peed or pooped (or at least would purposefully ignore it), this time he would tell me that he'd peed as soon as it would happen. "Mama, I peed. Mama, I pooped." So that was a minor achievement.

And then today, after some unsuccessful attempts, he said "Mama, I'm pooping." I scooped him up, positioned him on the potty, and voila, we squeezed two nuggets into the potty.

We were so excited. He was so proud of himself. We called all grandparents to let them know and make him even more proud!

It just so happened that my parents were on the way over anyway, so when we called to tell them about the poop, my dad promised to bring chocolate over as a reward.

However, two subsequent pees were done in the pants but still!

I also realized that Ivan knows the past and present tense--I pooped. vs. I'm pooping. So that's exciting.

So I have high potty training hopes for tomorrow and Monday.