Potty talk

"James, did you pee on the potty?"

"No, I pooped... And peed."

With one exception (due to complete distraction by a Lego video game... Sigh) James has had three totally accident free days. This is huge for us, he's closer to four than three and we are so looking forward to being done with this phase!

Oh, Potty Training

The potty training saga is ongoing at our house.  This has by far been the most challenging part of my parenting journey to date.  I suppose that means that I've been fairly lucky with a laid back kid, who listens relatively well and is a usually a people pleaser.

James is getting better and better with using the potty all the time.  He still puts a fight about it most of the time, but if you tell him to go upstairs and use the potty, he will.  Now when he has an accident he responds, "But I didn't mean to," which is actually pretty cute, even though it means that I'm cleaning up wet undies!  Going to underwear all day, regardless of accidents, has really helped.  He is grumpy when his pants are wet, so he is more likely to actually hold it.  Obviously, he gets a dry pair, but when he's at daycare, that can take a minute or so.  He will still very rarely tell you that he has to potty, but if he goes every 30 to 45 minutes, he's been very successful in his big boy underwear.  I am hoping this trend continues, although he does have days where he just has no interest (like last Thursday when he went through 5 pairs of underwear at daycare).

I should also mention that little boy underwear are really cute?  He just looks like such a big kid, running around in his cartoon character underoos.  My baby is growing up.

James in his Despicable Me undies

The prophecy

Potty training plugs along at our house.  We ignored all of it for a few weeks, hoping James would be more receptive than our previous attempts.  Out of nowhere, James requested McQueen Pullups.  He has seen some of the older boys with them at daycare and he just had to have them.  They're thinner than diapers (and leak more...) but James can put them on by himself.  He's been more interested in using the potty and has had some success, although he still won't ask to use it himself.  He also rarely admits that he has to go, even if you ask every 30 minutes or so.  But he's interested and we are getting there, slowly but surely.
Rhonda, patron saint of screaming babies, runny noses, and all things child oriented thinks he'll be done by the end of the summer.  That's the prophecy, let's hope it comes true!

Potty Training

Our home has become the Land of Epic Failures.  Yes, we must be potty training.  Actually, by saying we're potty training, one might think something is actually happening that resembled James using the potty.  That is just not the case.
Let me back up a little bit.  We've been potty training James for some time now, but not pushing the issue.  Almost a year ago we got a potty, James picked it out and for the summer months, he used it regularly.  He never got to the point of telling us that he had to go or asking to sit on the potty.  But he would stay dry overnight, pee on the potty in the morning, maybe pee on the potty in the evening.  He was "helping" other big kids potty at daycare and Rhonda and I thought it was going to happen soon.  James even picked out a new potty seat to use on our regular toilet.  All was moving along swimmingly.
Or so we thought.  Sometime in the fall, James decided that he no longer liked the potty.  I can't think of something specifically that happened to make this decision, but he did.  Then we had the trauma of switching daycares for a few weeks while Rhonda was recovering and there was no way James was letting a new daycare provider help him potty.
Coincidentally enough, the morning I ended up having Logan, James sat on the potty in the morning at his own suggestion and was happy to do it.  Of course, he probably knew I was running late, but I couldn't tell him no I don't have time for you to potty.  Other than a few other instances, he will not even consider using the potty.

He doesn't know a baby is coming in 12 hours

We are now 4 months shy of James' 3rd birthday, which was the "be potty trained by" goal we set out when he turned 2.  HA!  That is so not happening.  Everyone keeps telling me that "he'll do it when he's ready" but at this point, I don't even know what that means.  This morning, I put James on the potty, with a book, completely cheerfully, and he erupted into screams of agony.  You'd think I was water boarding him.  Adam rescued him from the potty and James spent the rest of the morning rather grumpy with me.
I am now at a total loss.  I think I should keep asking him if he'd like to use the potty, keep offering incentives (candy, iPad time, toys, small box of $50 bills?), keep pushing the issue?  I read a great article yesterday that told me I might psychologically damage him if I am too pushy.  Awesome news there!  All I know is that changing his diapers is getting gross.  He eats more than I do some days, so you can imagine the output!  And the boy that once would wake up dry every morning, now regularly wets through diapers overnight.
We still have a long road ahead of us.

Holy Baboon Butt

One of the things that has struck me about being a parent is the amount of knowledge I have about my kid's bodily functions.
Sidebar:  How's that for a start on Monday morning?
I knew being parent involved changing diapers, wiping noses, and clipping nails, but wow.  Two years into it, I am still amazed at what is "normal" for me to talk about to Adam, my mom, or the daycare lady.
Over the weekend, James and I had some stomach issues.  Mine came on Saturday evening, after a lovely dinner with my mom, and James' started on Sunday morning.  He went through 4 pairs of shorts on Sunday. Yes, shorts, not the diapers under them, but shorts that were victims to severe diaper blow outs.
After we thought this "event" was over, we ventured out to our local park.  We didn't even think to bring a diaper bag (for an hour or less, we generally don't bring one).  So of course, James had another blow out, on the play ground.  I drove home and back quickly and we changed him there rather than make him cut his play time short.  Then I realized another pair of shorts was a mess, so James played for awhile in just his diaper and shirt (until the wind kicked up and it got too cold to run around pantless).
As a result, my little man's tush is a mess.  There is crazy baboon action going on in this guy's pants.  We gave him a bath and let him run around diaperless for almost an hour, but his poor butt is not happy.  Every diaper change has been a fight, because it hurts to get wiped and it hurts to put more diaper cream on.
But Adam and I chatted about his butt.  When Adam left for the Ravens game, I texted him about the state of James' butt.  This morning, Rhonda and I had a chuckle at poor James' expense, because his butt is so red.  Who knew this would be my life?
James is feeling better, he never seemed sick really, just the stomach problem.  Two rounds of probiotics in his juice yesterday and this morning have helped.  The butt is much less red than it was last evening.  I can't wait until he's potty trained.

He's a peeing machine

I haven't updated much about James and potty training, because there really hasn't been a lot to report.  He will use the potty once a day, usually.  He still isn't communicating his need to potty, but we are still taking it slow.  This morning, I thought we hit a milestone.  James woke up and asked me to potty.  He pointed to the bathroom and said "Potty?" So we high-tailed it in there, got his pajamas off (James thinks he needs to be totally naked to potty) and got him on the potty.  James sat.  He sat.  And sat.  And sat.  For 10 or so long minutes.  Nothing.  James looked up at me from his NFL magazine and said "All done."  I, of course, knew he couldn't be all done, he hadn't peed and his overnight diaper was dry.
I asked him to sit and try a bit longer.  James looked at me and smiled.  Then proceeded to pee all over the bathroom.  When I told him that we pee on the potty, he stopped peeing, looked at me again, smiled, and STARTED to pee AGAIN.  As I was cleaning the bathroom floor, he made a few more stops, in the hallway and in his bedroom, once again, to pee.
So that was fun.
I told James in a stern, but kind voice, that pee goes in the potty or in a diaper.  As we sat on the floor to get a diaper on, a very contrite (and still naked) James snuggled into my lap.  I think he thought I was mad at him, and honestly, I was a little bit.  But I didn't yell or shame him, because really, its just some pee and I didn't want to be counterproductive.  After a struggle, James let me diaper and dress him and we were on our way for the rest of the morning.  As I brushed my teeth, James stood and clung to my leg, again probably thinking I was mad.    He really is a pretty sensitive kid and he knows when someone is upset.  At that point I wasn't really upset anymore, so I gave him a big hug and told him that I wasn't mad.  I don't think this incident will hinder our potty training and I think it was a good sign that he wanted to sit on the potty first thing in the morning.  I just need to keep him on there longer!

Boo boos and the potty

This summer is plugging along at a quick pace.  I can't believe that June is almost over, but part of that is because from May to July I have my busy time at work.  I've been working hectically, trying to get contracts executed by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.  But it looks like everything is going to be done on time and I can relax.  Or start another project, but at least this one has less definite deadlines.
James has been having a great time at daycare, they play in the water almost everyday.  Rhonda has several sprinklers and 2 water tables which have been wearing the kids out.  This summer, James has been getting boo boos far more regularly.  Luckily, we haven't had to deal with anything too gruesome, but he is always banged up.  I know its his age, he's still a bit clumsy while running full force, which leads to bruises and scrapes.  Of course, the magical cure for a boo boo is for mom or dad (or both) to kiss it.  Then its automatically better and mom feels like she's in control of the universe.  James scraped his knee on the way into daycare yesterday morning and when Adam picked him up in the evening, it was the first thing James said to him.  "Daddy, boo boo".
A few days ago, James also got a boo boo from Albert, our "first born" fuzzy child.  James was poking the cat and I warned him not to.  Albert let a hiss out, but James continued to poke, so James got his first official swat from the cats.  He had a very small scratch by his elbow, but James cried like teenage girl watching Titanic for the first time.  I comforted him, but also let him know that Albert means business.  When Adam got back from walking the dog, Albert and James "apologized" to each other and we again reinforced that messing with the cats leads to scratches, of course after kissing the boo boo a few more times.  I suppose James is lucky that our far more aggressive cat, Sassy, came to us with no claws.
Other than boo boos, we've been working on potty training a bit.  We are still keeping it very low key, but are going to step up our efforts a bit, so see if we can get James to ask to go to the potty.  Who knows if we get anywhere with this anytime soon, but we've set a very loose deadline of having James fully potty trained by 3.  I know that might seem silly, but we figured we would put the date somewhere attainable for now.  The last thing we want to do is push too hard and have James resist completely.  So we're going to add a few potty sitting sessions into James' routine.  Right now, he sits on the potty before we put his jammies on for the night.  We're going to add 2 morning potty times (first thing and then before we leave for daycare) and an after nap potty time (on the weekends) and go from there.  We've already discussed with Rhonda and for the time being James will continue as usual at daycare, unless he happens to ask for the potty.  I don't foresee this happening for awhile, but I think we are going in the right direction.  It would be miraculous if James was potty trained before his younger sibling comes along, but I know the next six months will be full of change and I don't want to stress him out unnecessarily!

The time James peed on my foot

Awhile ago (I'm not sure exactly when, since my brain is mush and the last few months have been hectic) we bought James a potty.  He picked it out and has been quite happy with it.  The bowl works as a hat and he frequently brings his potty into the living room or where ever he may be playing.  He likes to sit on it, but always in pants.  He will even sit on the potty while I'm on the potty.  He follows us both into the bathroom consistently and does the same with the big boys at daycare.  Our daycare has an open potty kind of situation and I'm ok with that, they're too little to really know what privacy is and they all get their diapers changed in front of each other anyway.
We've been noticing that James stays dry overnight and at naptime, so we decided that we're going to try to put James on the potty in the mornings to get used to going there.  Well, yesterday was the first day of this new stage of potty training.  So I get James up from his nap and take off his diaper (such a rookie move, was I thinking at all?)  We walk to the bathroom and he tells me "No, no no!" and I asked if he wanted a diaper (seriously, take control, Chelsea).  And in that very moment, James peed on my foot and all over the bathroom floor.  I squealed and managed to get him on the potty.  But I failed to immediately point "Lil Jimmy" downward.  So there was more pee, all over my floor.  James was crying, having been startled when I screamed and Adam was downstairs, asking what was going on.  Because clearly, that was the right moment to verbally relay the situation to Adam.  So I said, "we have a situation" and left it at that.  So James peed on the potty.  And on the floor.  And on my foot.
And that was my illustrious intro into the world of potty training.