Adventures in Potty Training

My two year old is a master manipulator.

Earlier this week (Monday, actually, because the actual day is important), Jack and I enjoyed 4 diaper free hours. By enjoyed, I mean I set a timer and did a "potty training trial run" and had my son sit on his toddler potty every 15 minutes for 4 hours. Before I began this adventure, I tried to let my son run around naked. He wouldn't have it, so I let Jack pick out a pair of Jake and the Never Land Pirate big boy underwear and he peed immediately after he put them on. No mess, just a dribble, and he didn't care that he was soaked. Hmmm. Okay then. Naked it is. For the first 2-3 times sitting on the toilet, Jack would simply bring me a clean diaper and then lay on the floor awaiting its installation. I explained that he's having naked time. I then reverted to the reward system and he would get a baby gummy bear each time he sat on the potty. The catch was that he had to sit and eat the candy ON the potty. I explained that he would get MORE gummy bears if he actually peed or pooped on the toilet. He never did produce anything, in the toilet or out and it was time to start dinner, so on went the diaper. No biggie.

I'm going to go ahead and break off here and say we're not actually potty training. I have no idea what I'm doing, I don't really care for advice right now, and Todd and I have a plan for when we decide to begin, which will likely not be until AFTER Nina comes. I'm just trying to see how he's going to respond to it. Unless he up and decides he's done with diapers one day, I'm not forcing the issue and it's not really a daily occurrence.

The best part of our adventure on the potty is that now Jack IS finally showing an interest. Prior to my bribery, Jack would use the potty as a chair, or a step stool. Now? After our 4 hour potty tryout? He uses it as a procrastination device.

Jack naps anywhere from 2-4 hours each afternoon. His nap depends on when I get him down. Sometimes he wakes up early and requires a nap around 1. He naps for 2 hours. If I get him down between 2-3, he will nap from 3-4 hours. Now that he's figured out that I will stop everything to let him sit on the potty, as soon as naptime is mentioned, he runs to the potty and signs "more" and says "adin!" I want him to be able to communicate with me if he has to use the bathroom, and at this early in the game, I don't want to do anything that makes the potty anything less than a positive experience.

Thursday afternoon, Jack didn't nap until close to 4. He asked to sit on the potty and he stayed there, bare bottomed, for over 20 minutes allowing me to read books to him. There are a couple of important things in that last sentence. 1) the kid sat on the toilet for almost 1/2 an hour to AVOID A NAP. 2) I allowed it because 3) HE LET ME READ BOOKS TO HIM.

My child hasn't let us actually read a book from front to back to him since February (and he was read to nightly since he was about a month old, so it was incredibly random that he just up and quit enjoying it). No bedtime stories, no curl up on the couch and have mommy & me time. Nothing. I was thrilled. I was possibly more excited that we read 5 different books than I was that he was sitting on the toilet. For the past three nights, Todd and I have been reading to Jack again. I bought him the Berenstain Bears New Baby book in anticipation that this moment would arrive. The first time I read it to him I recapped at the end of the story the difference in bed sizes, mommy's growing belly, where the baby is in the book, where Jack's little sister is and he seemed to understand everything I was saying. That was pretty freaking cool. We don't actually read the book now (he still prefers Bear in Underwear), but Jack goes through it and points out the pictures and points to Baby Sister Bear and my belly. He understands that the crib in his room is for the baby. I guess he understands that he is going to be a big brother? He responds by pointing to himself when I ask who is going to be a big brother.

Who knew that such an odd thing like potty training could lead to a renewed love of books? I am certainly enjoying his enthusiasm again. Maybe that's the wrong way to word it. He's always been enthusiastic about books, but hasn't been about being read to for the last couple of months. I'm glad he is learning to enjoy being read to again.