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    Skip, skip, skip to the loo

    January 6th, 2012

    We spent the close of 2011 and welcomed 2012 while in potty learning quarantine. And you know what? It may have worked!

    I’ll be honest: I dreaded this milestone. Actually I still dread this milestone. I drive home after work and wonder if today is the day we can go back to diapers, ‘cuz let’s face it — diapers are just too damn convenient… for me. I know I can drive to my intended destination with little worry that I have to swerve over 4 lanes of flying-by traffic in search for a place for my kid to relieve themselves. I can make dinner, type out an email without the interruption of “Mama, I gotta to pee pee!” I had secretly hoped that some day, my kids will go from diapers, to self-reliant individuals, that would just hold it until a suitable rest-stop was available, take themselves to the bathroom, remove their dress and take care of business. I guess I was thinking we’d be potty learning when they were 10? But G seems to accept the toilet, and I’m taking his lead on this.

    I can’t say we started because he had an epiphany and all of a sudden started feeling uncomfortable going in a diaper. It was more of a curious experiment to see if he “might” be ready. He never told us when he was going, or had gone (with the exception of pooping, when he’d run, hide, and scream like a banshee if you approached, even unknowingly, him before he was finished). You see, there’s this 3-day potty training method that I figured might be worth looking into. We’ve had friends that have implemented it with success, and with laziness to look into other alternatives, I considered it. This 3-day method is really more of training the parents than the kids, and requires a self-imposed, house imprisonment for 3 days. Well, I had a 3-day off week-end over the turn of the year and no more until mid-year (blech!), and I figured “Hey, let’s try it! And if it fails, we’ll just wait ’til later”

    I will give credit to S for this. We took G out of daycare on Fri, while S2 still went. It gave us one full G-only day, which was good. I spent the day staring at his crotch more or less, which let me tell you, feels remarkably perv-y! S was in charge the rest of the week-end, while I ran after the little one.

    At the end of the second day G asked to go on his own. And he’s been asking to go since. Now… his ability to hold it is pretty non-existent, and hot wet he is, as of now if dependent on how fast we can run him to the rest-room. But he had NO accidents yesterday at school (previously getting 1/day). It also took him 6 days to get around the idea of going #2, but he’s got the hang of it now.

    The biggest challenge will be this Saturday as we travel an hour to a birthday party. He’s not a fan of being encouraged to go when he’s not ready, so getting him out of the house w/ a pre-potty stop is a bit of a battle. Let’s see how that goes. I know it will be months before I can say that he’s a full-fledged potty user. It will be months, too, before we leave the house without a spare closet in the trunk of our car, but we’re moving forward.

    Pictures? None today, but here’s a video of G practicing skipping while wearing his undies. His bootie is darn cute. Oh, and for the record, my favorite pair of his undies are these Paul Frank monkey boxer briefs. Too cute!

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_O9aFCyXdA]