Dare I say...my kid is mostly potty-trained?

that's right. Despite my own misgivings, and my negative expectations, Weston has done very well with the whole challenge of excreting his internal yuckiness into a toilet. It wasn't easy...but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It's mostly..boring..long...and grueling. A few wig-out moments...and some frustration with the process...but every day gets easier and easier.

So for the record, Weston was showing major signs of readiness. He was extremely interested in the toilet, and he loved watching Elmo Goes Potty and reading THE POTTY BOOK. He also would tell me when he was going poop, and seek out privacy. The only thing he didn't do that most checklists mentioned being a good sign is having a dry diaper for 1-2 hours. So the major concern I had going into this was whether he COULD hold it in.

I used this book as the basis for my approach. Essentially...you hype up underwear, take the kid to get said undies (he gets to pick them out), and then you only put the child in real underwear starting early morning on Day 1. The book says to get plain undies and character undies. Start with character ones and play up the whole "Lightning McQueen is sad when he gets wet. Let's keep him dry. If he gets wet, he goes bye-bye." Take him/her to the toilet every 10-15 minutes. Literally. Set a timer.

And then if an accident happens, put the kid in plain colored underwear, until a successful toilet trip. If the kid poops in the underwear, you throw them away. And let the kid see you do it. Then you choose a currency (stickers, skittles, etc) that your child would respond to for a reward system. The book recommended this system:

1 M&M for trying.
2 M&Ms for peeing.
3 M&Ms for pooping.

Right away I saw the errors in this approach--but ONLY because of who Weston is. Since he is just newly 2, he is stubborn and doesn't differentiate between rewards and consequences when hypothetical situations come about. In other words, regardless what happened, he demanded 2 M&Ms. If I said "you get an M&M for trying." He said, "No, 2 M&Ms." {Note: he does this for everything. If I say, "Want me to sing a song?" He says, "No, TWO songs." It's just his way. He needs one piece of cookie for each hand. etc. It's annoying. Times two.} Now, I could have stuck with my guns and done only 1, but after I saw it was an emotional battle that was only going to hinder the process, I decided to only offer 2 M&Ms for peeing or pooping. If he tried when he didn't want to, I would persuade him with 2 M&Ms. If he didn't mention M&Ms, I didn't offer them.

Also, we never bothered with the plain colored underwear. We realized right away that he was sad when he did pee his pants. He would say, "uh oh! Mickey sad! Mickey wet." And then he would tell us Mickey has to go bye-bye. So we would get him excited again about staying dry by letting him pick his own underwear out. We put him a pull-up for naps...and then a regular diaper for nights. We aren't going to night train him until after we move (hopefully later this year) because he's still in a crib, and our hallway to the bathroom is unsafe thanks to a stairwell right in front of the bathroom door (and no, a baby gate doesn't work at the opening.)

So on Day 1, we went every 10-15 minutes. And he still had 8-9 accidents. He didn't pee on the toilet until late afternoon. We literally were throwing pants and undies into the washer every hour. (Some people say to abandon pants, but I would rather wash pants than couches. If it's summer, you can just let them play outside in undies, but this ain't summer.)
Day 2, we had 3-4 accidents.
Day 3, He pooped in the toilet in the morning!!! He didn't bat an eye for this one. I think he was more excited than scared. He had one accident around 11 a.m. But as the day progressed I was losing my mind. We had moved to every 20 minutes, but he was fighting me to even sit on the pot. Hitting me in the face, etc. I was alone this day. Though sadly, even when Neil was there, I felt alone because Weston decided he would only go on the toilet with mommy. Boo. I was contemplating giving up but then I realized that was silly because he had improved sooo much. I thought the next day would be the true test because it was daycare.

Well daycare reported he did great. He went every 30 min to the toilet and sometimes peed. No accidents, other than after nap. He came home that day and he ran to me and said, "mommy, my tummy hurts." I ran him to the toilet and he went! YAY!

And so it went. Daycare said he was dry after nap 2 of the days. And at home, he continued to buck us for the most part, but stayed dry. This weekend, he stayed dry for 2-3 hours a few times!! (When we leave, we do put him in pullups. He knows to keep Lightning McQueen or Buzz/Woody dry.) So he tells us when he has to poop now, but he doesn't tell us when he has to pee. We have to initiate it, and he doesn't always go on the toilet at all. But so far, no accidents!


Two funny stories from the process.

1. Day 2, I took him to the toilet and he didn't go. So I set the time for 5 minutes. And I asked him when the timer went off, "do you have to pee?" He said, "nooooo!' So I set it for 2 more minutes. (Lame, I know.) Well of course, a minute later, he peed. I picked him up and ran him to the bathroom, saying, "Dammit, dammit, dammit... " without even thinking. Of course, my lil' monkey copied me. Well, Neil...he heard this, and said, "HA HA HA!" (He didn't laugh, he literally said that word three times, heartily.) Weston repeated that too. Neil and I then both laughed because it was all so funny. And here Weston thought the HA HA HA was the funny part, so for the rest of the day, he kept doing it.

2. Thursday night, Weston told me he had to poop. He said his tummy hurt. So I ran him to the toilet. I think he had gas, because he was crying really hard and he said, "mommy, my butt hurt." And I held his hands and told him to poop and it'll feel better. He shook his head and said, "no mommy, I want medicine." It broke my heart. He thought medicine would make his butt not hurt. hahaha

Anyway. I am proud of my son for sure. Mostly because it went way better than expected. I knew he was smart and interested, but he has impressed the doubter in me. IT's still a pain to have to take him so often, but it is working so we'll stick with it!!