Potty Training

There is going to be some poop talk...so if this bothers you, feel free to skip this post. :)

Potty Training with Carson has been hit or miss for the most part. He never, ever tells me when he needs to go, so I've always asked him, and we've gone or tried on my prompting. He does really good for the most part, but some days he just doesn't want to, and takes a lot of persuasion to sit on the pot. When he does sit on it, he goes, and accidents have gotten farther and farther apart. In the past month, I would say that we have probably had 20 days or so without accidents. On the other hand, the child has HATED pooping on the toilet! He seems to always wait to go until he is in a pull-up during nap time or bedtime...and I'm sorry, but I'm just not putting him to sleep in underwear yet - we've only left the house in underpants once, and we had an accident, so I'm just not confident in it yet. He's not yet 3, which I've been told is the more common age for boys to "get" it, so I've just been kind of sticking with it. I know that lots of kids have an aversion to going #2 on the toilet for one reason or another, so I asked him about it a few weeks ago, and he said he didn't like going on the toilet because it was hard. So we talked about that a bit, and I told him how good it was when he does go on the toilet, and how that means he is such a big boy, and I reminded him of his wonderful reward of 4 small marshmallows for pooping on the toilet - this seems so minor to me, but it makes his whole day. I hope it's always the little things in life that make his heart leap.

Well! Today seems to be a new day all together! About an hour ago, I asked him if he needed to go, and he said no, so I left it at that and figured I would ask him again shortly. Then about 10 minutes later he announces, "Mommy! I need to go peepee!" So we went, and sure enough! I was so proud, and he got an extra mini marshmallow (the quota is 2 for going #1) just for telling me that he needed to go. Much praise ensued. About 30 minutes after that, he is playing on the floor and suddenly gets very still and quiet, so I asked him if he needed to poo. Now normally, his immediate response would be a NO! and he would try and act busy in hopes that I wouldn't wisk him to the toilet - which I generally do in such situations. Instead, he looked at me and *happily* said "yes!" I was so proud, so we went, and he went, and much more praise ensued!

The other thing that he suddenly seems to have gotten is the nose wiping thing. He's known how to blow his nose since he was about 14 months old, but he generally sticks his fingers in it if I don't get to it fast enough. Well yesterday we were talking about this, and I told him that when his nose is running, he should tell me so that I can wipe it so his fingers don't get "yucky." I figured we would probably have to have that talk again, but several times this morning, he's come to me and pointed to his nose and asked me to wipe it. Needless to say, I'm super proud and so glad he isn't sticking his fingers in his running nose.

Oh, and evidently I used to be a big boy. When Carson was going #2, I was talking to him about how when he thinks he is done, he should try a little more, because inevitably, he has success in the toilet, only to go in his pants a little later. yech. So then the conversation goes something like this...


Carson: "When you were a little, little big boy, you had to go poopoo on the potty?"

Mommy: "Yep, when I was your age, I learned to go poopoo on the potty. It's really good to use the potty, huh?"
So Carson talks about this for a while longer, and keeps referring to me as "a little, little, big boy like me." So after a bit of this...

Mommy: "I was a little girl."

Carson: "No, a BIG girl. No, no...a big BOY!"

Mommy: "But I'm a Mommy. Mommies are girls."

Carson: "Yes. You were a little BOY like me!" :)

Whatever he says. :)