Potty All the Time

We’ve started potty training Connor so be prepared for the first of many posts involving everyone’s favorite subject, poop and pee. At first I thought, Potty Training - it can’t be that different from training a puppy right? I wasn’t sure where to start in the potty training project, never having potty trained anything that did not walk on four legs, so after reading articles and talking to friends, we’ve developed our own method. We just put the kid in underwear. And it works. It doesn’t work because he’s wearing underwear and doesn’t want to get himself wet. It works because he’s wearing underwear and I don’t want him even sitting on the sofa until he’s at least tried to pee. It works as a constant reminder to me, that he’s not wearing a diaper. So he goes to the potty, about every 30 minutes.

When he actually pees on the potty, he gets a reward. An m&m, a smartie or some other odd random foodstuffs we have on hand. “YYAAYY! Connor! YOU PP’ed ON THE POTTY! YAY~ You get a PISTACHO!” It’s only a matter or time before we work in his multi-vitamin and the pack of stale saltines at the bottom of the pantry. The reward system however, is almost working too well. Instead of releasing his bladder all at once, he lets go for about 3 seconds, gets down, demands an m&m and runs into the kitchen naked. Then about 10 minutes later, it’s a miracle! Behold! I have pp’ed on the potty AGAIN! (but for only three seconds). Or at least that was it today. Tomorrow he’ll probably have mastered bladder control in an attempt to let out a stream every 60 seconds so that he does nothing but sit naked on the potty all day, eating m&ms. If I left the door open so that he could see the TV from the downstairs bathroom, for him it would be heaven indeed. 

At some point we’ll have to stop with the rewards all together, but if we can get him potty trained by the end of the week, it will be worth every bit of the sugar and spoiling. It’s so much easier than newspapers on the floor next to the door.