So we're into the second month of the year now and rapidly closing in on Daniel's 3rd birthday. Which made me think that he was probably ready to be potty trained, right?!? Mmmm...not so much.
We decided to try "potty training boot camp" the weekend of January 30th. It was Super Bowl weekend but aside from that, we didn't have much going on and it seemed like a good weekend to stay inside so I decided to go for it. We kept telling him the whole week that he was a big boy and that he didn't need to wear diapers anymore and that the diaper fairy was coming to take all his diapers away. (I had used the same "shoe fairy" trick to get him to let go of his Lightning McQueen shoes a few weeks earlier when I had to buy him new shoes. BTW, he's a size 9W now. Elizabeth is a 10...not much bigger!!) He seemed on board with the concept plus I was down to only changing about 3-4 diapers/day meaning he could stay dry for long periods. He's developed a very predictable pattern with pooping too (can I mention "pooping" in a blog??) Pretty much right after lunch like clockwork. I even took him with me on a couple of trips to Target to buy "big boy" underwear. He chose Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train and he seemed very excited about wearing them. All a recipe for success, right??
I followed a document that I had saved for "Potty Training in 3 Days." I pretty much thought it would work that way since my memory told me it was fairly easy with Elizabeth (once she got the hang of it on the 2nd or 3rd day). We brought out the potty chair that we used with Elizabeth and I got it all cleaned up and ready to go. We even asked Daniel to sit on it a few times before we started so he would get familiar with it. Well...things did not quite go as planned. The first day (I really didn't start until Friday afternoon since he still went to school on Friday in a diaper) he wore the underwear and didn't really do anything in the potty. I had to drop Elizabeth off at Ella's house for Ella's birthday party and when I picked her up, Daniel peed in the car. Things didn't go much better on Saturday. I decided to let him go "nekkid" in hopes that I could catch him in the act a little better and in hopes that he would get to the potty in time. The one thing that he's NOT ready for is pulling his pants up and down, or even his underwear. I managed to catch him a few times but he didn't have control of his, ahem, "device" and pee usually ended up all over the carpeted floor in the playroom. Plus, he still didn't poop all day. I managed to get a bit of a reprieve when we met Ed and Elizabeth at Fellini's for dinner after they had attended the Woodward girls' basketball game (in support of Jonathan Merrill). I put a pull up on him for that and he actually stayed dry. We also started using nighttime pull ups overnight and although they would be wet in the morning, he didn't soak through them which was good. This whole time, I was using M&Ms as his reward when he would even get a little bit in the potty, which wasn't often. He doesn't go that often in a day so we didn't get many opportunities to practice!
Finally on Sunday morning while Ed and Elizabeth were at church, he needed to poop. I tried every trick in the book to get him on the potty but he refused. He was visibly upset and cried. I even offered him a diaper or pull up but he finally stood there in the playroom and pooped in his underwear. I brought him into the bathroom with me and stripped him down and showed him that the poop goes into the potty. We had a couple of semi-pees in the potty but still no total successes. I even called Whitney Payne since she has potty trained two boys including Mitchell (who is in Daniel's class) and she gave me a great pep talk and told me to be patient and stop thinking that this is the worst thing I've ever done, which I was definitely thinking at the time! I had a near breakdown (probably just as much for being on house arrest all weekend as for the potty frustration) but decided to forge ahead.
I sent him to school on Monday in a pull up and told his teachers to take him to the potty. I went inside to pick him up and Stayce Bushart told me that he went in the potty but she was a bit distracted when I was speaking to her so I'm not sure I believe her. Nevertheless, he definitely had the same pull up on as he went to school in (I knew because the others had his name on them) so maybe the peer pressure had helped. I decided to make a sticker chart to see if that helped and thinking of peer pressure, I also made a sticker chart for Elizabeth. I figured it might help if he could see her getting rewarded all the time and it might motivate him. It seemed to work in the beginning and I thought we had turned a corner on Monday night. Ed was away at a church meeting and I persuaded Daniel to sit on the potty after dinner by convincing Elizabeth to sit on another potty chair next to him. It took several minutes but he actually peed into the potty and held his "device" down the entire time so that it all went into the potty!! I was so thrilled. I gave him two stickers and called my parents and I really wanted to call the president or anyone who would listen!!!
But then came Tuesday. We went to gymnastics in a pull up and I showed him the bathroom there and tried to get him to sit on the potty but he refused. As we were driving home, he was kicking his legs and I could tell he needed to go. I told him we were almost home and I raced home as fast as I could. I immediately stripped him down and got the potty out. He started dancing around and saying, "It hurts! It hurts!" I kept encouraging him to sit on the potty but he was so wrapped up in the sensation that he refused. He finally started peeing all over the kitchen floor and I tried to pull him over to the potty where we managed to get a little of it in there but still made a huge mess. I was crushed. I decided that he just wasn't ready and neither was I so we would drop it. Then I went to a Parent Council meeting the next morning at the preschool and that just HAPPENED to be the day that they gave out the brochure on the summer camps, which by the way, he MUST be potty trained to attend. I got all frustrated and discouraged all over again. To top it off, when we got home, Daniel started doing his dance and crying and saying, "It hurts!" all over again and I kept telling him that he had a diaper on so he should just go and he kept acting hysterical until he finally paused and peed, then he was fine. I got worried that something might really be physically wrong so I actually took him to Children's Medical Group that afternoon to make sure he didn't have a bladder infection. We saw Dr. Calk and he's decidedly laid back so that helped a lot. He said that bladder infections are very rare in 2-year-old boys so he said it's more likely that Daniel is freaked out by the sensation of needing to go rather than the pain of going. We tried (unsuccessfully) to get a urine sample (ha!) and then $20 and a dose of reality later, we left. I was distraught all over again and consumed with the idea that my child would never be potty trained and especially not in time to attend summer camp and give me some relief from my summer of hell like last year.
I remained in that fog for the rest of the week and then finally snapped out of it over the weekend. I've since read a million googled web pages and solicited countless advice from others about potty training and it seems that most unsuccessful attempts are rendered successful a month or two later. I'm praying we fall into that group! I'm trying to devise some foolproof strategies for next time and I'm hoping we can just declare that diapers are no longer an option and even though I might have to carry a towel and extra clothing every time we leave the house for a while, I'm hoping we can stick with it. If all else fails, there are three full weeks this summer before any YCS camps start so that will have to be the final battle!
So aside from that nightmare, things have been moving right along. Elizabeth had her testing appointment at IHM on Saturday. I think we absolutely did the best job possible of preparing her. It was a great decision to bring her with us to the Open House so that she was familiar with the school and then we "talked up" the fact that she would be returning for one of her teachers to "ask her some questions." I decided long ago that Ed would take her since any separation anxiety tends to be worse with me and it worked out well because I took Daniel to a birthday party. Ed said that she did fine and seemed to be very at ease with the whole thing. She told us that they read the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" as a group (with two other kids) and that they played with blocks and did some drawing with colors. She told Ed that she spoke with three teachers in total. I just said a prayer that they would see her for who she is and I know that will be enough. Our application process is now complete. Missy Perry was planning to write us a letter of recommendation and Linda Cavalli was planning to put in a good word for us with the principal and perhaps the admissions coordinator. Bryan Pinabell may also write a letter for us. So for now, that's all we can do. Now we wait until April 3rd when the letters go out and just pray for God to show us the right path of education for our kids!
We had a fun social outing with our Sunday School class this past Saturday night to Loco's and then bowling. It was a fun evening and just what the doctor ordered since Ed is busy as ever with church committees and work and I was coming out of my funk with respect to potty training failure. This weekend Ed's parents are coming into town to celebrate Daniel's birthday. They are planning to take the kids to Big Canoe on Saturday and Ed and I have dinner reservations at Goldfish (on Valentine's Day!) I hope we can spend some quality "couple time" this Saturday and then enjoy our family celebration for Daniel's birthday on Sunday. I need to remember all the blessings in my life and relax about the little things...surely Daniel will be potty trained by the time he leaves for college and like Whitney told me...even if he's not, he'll be out of my house by then!!
I hope to update soon with all the details of Daniel's birthday events...can he really be 3 already??? Where did my baby go???
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