Let me explain. Owen is wildly stubborn, just like his mama, so it came as no surprise that he refused to do much with us. We tried once in February 2016 to no avail and even though we kept trying over the next several months, nothing ever came of it.
Then, a few weeks before his third birthday, daycare told us to just bring him in underwear. And of course, bring lots of outfit changes. So, that is what we did. On Wednesday night, I made my way out to Walmart to buy a few elastic-waist pants and more undies. Of course, there were many accidents over Thursday and Friday. But then Owen refused to even try over the weekend. Surprise, surprise. But the real surprise came when Owen came home in the SAME OUTFIT that he went to daycare in. FOR REALS. Then, he did the same on Tuesday...and Wednesday...and that was that. He still wore a pull-up when sleeping and didn't go #2 yet but this was a wild success! All thanks to daycare. (THANK YOU Otter room!)
Owen was then really scared to attempt #2. We had one successful attempt in April 2017 but no others until one fateful weekend when we weren't even in town. Yep, that was went Gspice and I were in New Orleans and miss Sarah was hanging with them. It was apparently a bit messy but we've never looked back since. THANK YOU, SARAH! I took him out to celebrate with a donut and he also requested lettuce. Yep, lettuce. The text messages shown below came to us while we were eating at Luke in New Orleans. Probably another reason why I loved it so much!
In February 2017, Jack started showing signs of wanting to use the potty. Just look at that sheepish grin!
We didn't make much of an effort simply because we were lazy. Looking back now, I'm fine that we waited but it would have been nice to save money on all of the diapers/pull-ups/wipes. Fast forward to a few short days before his third birthday and we had a massively different experience with this tot. And I thank my lucky stars for that. I decided on a whim that this last weekend was it. I was going to attempt potty training simply because he was about to turn three and Owen was potty trained before this. Knowing that Jack is much more of a willing participant, I thought we could do it. And do it we did! JACK IS POTTY TRAINED!
I almost cannot believe that I sit here on Sunday night with a little boy who on Saturday morning, couldn't even understand what it was like to go potty. He had quite a few accidents in the morning but quickly got the hang of needing to speed over to the potty when he saw it coming. By midday, he had probably 4-5 accidents and then started a marathon pee session which I gave him 5 stickers for. Essentially, he'd have a little tiny accident but then ran to the potty right away but would only sit there for a hot second. At that point, I could tell that he was ready for the next step. I made him sit for longer periods of time so that he got more out in each sitting. It was a bit of a struggle but I got creative. We used a timer, let him color in a little activity book, use reuseable stickers, use dry erase markers on the toilet lid while sitting backwards, you name it. That got him 8 more stickers before naptime. It certainly helped that I gave him apple juice diluted with lots of water so he probably had around 36 ounces before lunch!
I was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn't have a very wet pull-up. It showed me that he did a pretty good job of emptying his bladder so that was good. After naptime, Jack kept doing really well but still had a little accident every time before rushing to the potty. By the end of the night, he had a total of 21 stickers. He clearly got the hang of it!
This morning started out a bit rocky and I was nervous about the progress that we had made. I upped the ante and put him in underwear but then had to sit through at least 10 underwear changes. He seemed super happy to change each time so I tried to act like it was such a chore but Jack was having none of it.
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| one of many undies for the morning! |
It wasn't until I got serious after naptime and told him that he would no longer get any M&Ms if he peed in his underwear even if he ran to the potty. If he did that, Jack only got a sticker. The first time he had an accident after that, he threw a major fit because I didn't give him the M&Ms but I didn't give in. It only took one or two more times before he FINALLY got it. It was probably around 2:30pm when it clicked. I'd say he had at least 9 stickers for successfully dry undies. He also got two M&Ms each time so that might have helped. I was even so sure of his progress that I left to go grocery shopping with Owen and left Gspice in charge AND let Jack sit on the couch for the first time all weekend!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Jack also pooped on the first day (and one random day awhile back which is why there are two stickers there) but I think he was confused with how to pee. He would push like he had to poop even though he didn't need to, so while I was super excited when he did that, I'm not convinced we're there yet. And also, any time I got a little too excited, Jack always had to tell me that I was too loud. It was super cute. And just look at this sticker board!
So now, I am sitting back and enjoying a glass of wine because friends, I think we now have two potty trained little boys! Cheers to that!
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