On the right track...

It's naptime here, so I thought I'd update you very quickly on PT progress, day 3 of bootcamp. Things are going pretty well, and I feel like there is certainly hope he'll be potty trained (at least #1) by the time August rolls around. We've been accident free all morning and made at least 5 or 6 successful trips to the potty. Two of those completely unsupervised...crazy, right? Most of Jack's toys are in the basement, and he loves to play down there. I had a few things to do down there too, so we headed downstairs mid-morning. He had just finished some juice, so I knew he'd need to pee at some point while we were down there. He's mostly been peeing on his little potty that is in our bathroom, but I prepared the downstairs bathroom with a makeshift stool and a seat insert to prevent him from falling in. So, after about 15 minutes, he told me he was ready to go potty. So, I helped him out a little bit, but he proudly did most of it himself. Since I felt sure he wouldn't need to potty again for at least a half hour, I headed upstairs to check on a napping Sam and start lunch. About 10-15 minutes later, I hear Jack yelling from downstairs, "I went pee pee." I was sure he meant in the floor. I ran over to the stairs to find him naked as a jaybird at the bottom of the stairs. I rushed down and he showed me his pee pee in the potty (I guess it was in there!) He had not only removed his shorts and underwear, but his shirt too! It was so cute! Anyway, he did this again about 15 minutes later.

So, here's a little breakdown:

Day 1 Summary: About 6 or 7 accidents (including naptime) and 4 successful potty trips.

Day 2 Summary: 4 accidents (including naptime) and at least 6 successful trips to the potty

Day 3 In Progress: 0 accidents (currently napping) and at least 6 successful trips to the potty (2 completely solo!)

Obviously, we'll have to work up to being able to use public bathrooms, because I do plan to leave the house again this month!! Depending on how the rest of the day goes and the weather looks, we might try the park tomorrow.

A little baby therapy

As promised, here is some non-potty talk for you...

Another day down

So, another day is done in the potty training adventure. It was better than the first, but there is definitely more progress to be made. Had about 3 accidents today and at least 4 successful trips to the potty. Here's the big boy in his cookie monster underpants using his camera to take a picture of all his reward stickers.

Eventually

Yes, eventually I will blog about something other than our potty training bootcamp that is taking place this week. In fact, I still owe you details about our Memorial Day reunion with friends old and new. My mind, however, is still in complete potty mode. If you choose to ignore this and similar posts, I promise not to be offended. I can completely understand if you've grown weary of my potty humor...literally.

Anyway, as I mentioned day one finished on a high note. And day two picked up right where we left off. We didn't manage to wake up dry, but I had not expected that either. By noon or so, Jack had sat on the potty three times all based on my reminders and reading his cues. Twice those resulted in pee pee. He was quite proud of himself for staying dry...and of course, I was over the moon. I knew we still had accidents ahead, but I thought he was at least catching on.

I realized this morning that I had not left the house since church on Sunday morning and was beginning to go a little stir-crazy. I got Jack dressed and he said he was ready to go. I asked him where he wanted to go he said the grocery store. So, we ventured off to Ingles, where he was happy to partake of a cookie. We stayed dry during our whole outing, which also included meeting daddy for lunch at Side Street deli. On the way home, I asked Jack if he was ready for a nap, which he declined. Instead he wanted to play football. I agreed that sounded fun, but reminded him we were working hard to stay dry and we might need to go to the potty first. He declined. I unloaded the car and then came back out to play with him. Within seconds of my return he paused. I of course urged him to hurry to the potty, but he remained frozen. We had our first accident of the day.

So, after some encouragement to hurry inside so we could change, he replied, "no hurry, I walk!" I got him cleaned up and had him sit on the potty, but he had already let it all go. We went back outside for a little longer and watched the thunderstorm brewing. Finally, we were ready to come in for a nap. Despite his extreme distaste for mandatory potty time, I have been making him sit on the potty before naptime and bedtime (last night resulted in a successful trip). At this point he had what I felt was a pretty major set-back. He began to whine and beg for a diaper and asked to get up on the changing table. His pride in being a big boy had disappeared (hopefully temporarily). I managed to convince him to sit down for a bit and we read a book. By the end, nothing had happened and he had calmed down. So, now he's napping and will more than likely wake up wet, but hopefully be ready to tackle his dry-ness with a new vengeance!

In other news, I got some video of little Sam talking away to his daddy last night. I'll try to get around to uploading it soon...lest I lose the few readers I have left because of this potty monopolization.

P is for Progress

I know, I know my third post of the day...amazed, aren't you? We had several accidents today, but overall progress was made. By the end of the day, we were on our sixth pair of underwear, but had peed in the potty four times! Three of those were without accidents preceding them, so definite progress was made. I know we've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but glad to know we made some strides today.

Pass the towel?

Okay, so it's naptime here and it's pretty much the sanest I've felt all day. I'm catching up on some mindless activities like blogging and laundry. I felt I should put in another update to let you know that things have gotten mildly better since this morning when things started off with a real bang. (At one point, he admitted he'd rather be a baby and wear diapers than be a big boy and sit on the potty!) Jack is still pretty resistant to mandatory potty time, so I quickly ditched the timer method...there had been enough crying for one day. He's been wearing underwear all day and we've had 4 accidents. Despite my best efforts to watch his cues, signals and behaviors, we haven't managed to catch him preparing to go in time to get him to the potty. I have stopped him twice when I thought I was getting some signals and made him sit on the potty (which is still pretty agonizing), but we had no results. After each accident he has gone somewhat willingly to sit on the potty. One of those times after some urging and a somewhat prolonged sit down he peed to much celebration, fanfare and rewards. We even ventured outside to play with his new golf set.

I've spent most of the day talking about and congratulating him for staying dry while he plays and bounces around like normal...except for the fact that he's in big boy underwear. He is proud of wearing the underwear and was excited to show his daddy when he got home a little while ago. I got ready to get him down for his nap and had planned to put him in a diaper. He refused, so he's upstairs napping in his big boy underwear. I'm fully expecting for his nap to be interrupted by him waking to wet sheets, but I thought the fact that he didn't want to wear the diaper was a good thing. So, in the meantime, I think I just stepped in something wet...could you pass the towel?

Throwing in the towel?

It's only a couple hours into bootcamp and I'm already prepared to throw in the towel (or big boy underpants in this case). I've dealt with kicking, screaming, pleading, yelling and extreme frustration and Jack hasn't been happy either...just kidding. So, maybe I should just listen to those of you that said you tried at his age and your boys weren't ready. You urged me to wait until he decided he was ready. He wants to be a big boy SOOO badly, but I've been telling him that big boys don't wear diapers. This morning during one of our potty trips, I asked him if he was a baby. He insisted he was not but also asked to wear a diaper. I don't want those to be my signs...I want him to be ready. I was prepared to put up with accidents, but not with a little one who despises the potty. I don't want to give up...mostly because I hate to lose! Well, better go...it's almost time to try again!