As we prepare to potty train our middle son, Graham, I’ve decided to look back at my notes from potty training my eldest, Aiden. We potty trained Aiden back in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit and quarantine had just begun. Aiden was 29 months old at the time and we figured, what better time to try this than when we’re stuck in the house and can’t go anywhere?
I blogged a couple of entries back on my old Where the Pineapple Grows site, and boy am I glad that I did. It’s so helpful to look back at how it went and remind myself that this is not going to be a walk in the park (even if it is my second go-around).
I plan to do a few posts this week about potty training: how we’re preparing, and how it’s going for Graham, but until then, enjoy these notes about potty training my eldest and the chaos that it was. 🙂
March 23, 2020–“Oh BOY: Potty Training”
Just when you think, you’ve got the whole parenting thing down—when your son actually poos on the potty on day 1 of potty training (and it feels so rewarding that you take a picture), and you think you’re crushing your use of time during self-quarantine by potty training—wham! Your son ends up having 7 accidents throughout the day, and it seems that every surface in your house has been covered with pee, and you end up frustrated with both him and your husband for what felt like a failed day of potty training.
But! Tomorrow is a new day, friends. A new day of potty training and a new day of grace. To love all my boys well regardless of our successes or fails. And I’m so grateful for the advice and experience of other parents that I can read about online to feel hopeful about day 2 of potty training tomorrow.
Because the truth of the matter is, while I want everything to go perfectly and for Aiden to be potty trained in 4 hours, that’s just not real life. I am hoping to do the “potty train in less than 3 days method” but every kid is different, and I need to be open to what will actually work for Aiden. And while reality may not always match my expectations, we have so much to be grateful for—Healthy boys, a home we love, a job that we are blessed to take a break from in this unique season, and space and time to really engage with one another.
Here’s to better attitudes for tomorrow (especially for mama), and grace to try again. Will report back and see how potty training goes over the next couple of days!
March 24, 2020–“A Potty Training Time Log (i.e. the social media snail’s version of live tweeting)”
8:45am Have had many successful mini pees and 2 accidents so far this morning. The first while attempting to train dolly to use the potty, and the second in his playpen (poor guy looked shocked).
9am First big pee of the day! Feels like such a victory.
10:56am It’s been 2 hours without accidents! We decided after the first accident to go naked except for a shirt (Aiden, not us, of course). We have a “peepee timer” set for every 20 minutes. Which means that every 20, we sit him on the pot, have him go, carry it to the real toilet, empty it, wash hands and give bunny graham’s as a reward. And about 15 mins later we do it all over again. Someone pray for our sanity.
The funny part is that in order to get him to go poo yesterday, we had to read pages from a book about orchestras. So now, every 20 minutes we sit him on the potty, we must read to him from this complicated orchestra book. I can tell you everything you want to know about the oboe. The guy’s going to be a toilet reader for sure.
And this whole going naked thing is very helpful for potty training and probably detrimental to our furniture and floors. I suppose one day we will get new furniture when all the kids have been potty trained in about a thousand years. I’m about to go lead Aiden in some exercises to get his energy (and maybe some poo) out.
12:30pm No poo in sight, but we did pee on the floor. I’m starting to recognize when Aiden needs to go and attempting to catch him before the moment rather than in the moment.
1:05pm both boys are napping with diapers on and mama and dada breathed a sigh of relief.
4pm 3 glorious nap hours later and we’re back at it, armed with juice boxes, bunny graham’s and a naked bum.
4:30pm We pulled out the big guns and Matt gave Aiden one of his high veggie/high fiber smoothies. Still no poo.
6:10pm Watching a Word Party episode and no accidents as of this afternoon! Only a little over an hour till bedtime #poo-gateisongoing
6:35pm We took a potty break in the middle of dinner (because last night we had an accident during dinner), and then, right there between dinner and dessert, Aiden finally pooed! He’s now pooed once a day on the potty and mama feels so accomplished and so relieved.
7pm We finished dinner and got to give both boys a bath and bedtime routine at the same time for the first time ever. My heart was a puddle on the floor and of course we documented. You’d rather I show you pics of them getting ready for bed than more of Aiden on the potty, no?
7:30pm both boys are in bed for the night. I had a glass of wine, made dessert, and am currently watching Food Network. Feels like heaven.
Log complete. Mama out.
