Potty Bonding

Do any of you remember my New Year's Resolution?

In January, I was determined to get all three kids potty-trained. Eli had been PT for quite awhile, but was such a heavy sleeper that he would go in the night and never wake-up.

Yeah, I'm sure he's going to love me blogging about this.

Nandi was poo-trained, but used pee as a way to get back at me.

What? You told me NO? Fine. I'm going to pee all over this stack of clean laundry. See how you like that!

And Noah - well, Noah, was heading down the path of being in diapers for the next 25 years.

BUT... the good news is that Eli and Nandi are now fully potty-trained!

(Insert Happy Dancing. No, seriously, I want you to move away from the computer right now and do a nice little funky jig for me. This is HUGE news.)

Eli got night trained immediately - so that part of the New Year's Resolution was over and done with by February. And, Nandi,well - let's just say that things at home are getting much better and she no longer uses pee as an angry defense mechanism.

Well, except once last week when she peed all over her leg brace - on purpose - because she knew that I'd have to take it off.

Smart girl. Scarily smart - and way more clever than I am.

But, the fact is that Nandi is going on her second week of being fully potty-trained. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. We just saved 35 bucks a month on pull-ups.

Whew.

Two down - one to go. And THAT, my friends, is what I'm doing with all my free-time. I have practically moved into our master bathroom on a permanent basis in my quest to get Noah out of pull-ups and into Batman underwear.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to potty-train a child who lacks the coordination to dress and undress himself, who can't talk, and has no way of letting you know if he needs to go?

It's mighty hard.

Realistically speaking, I'm giving it a year. Hopefully, it won't take that long. I'm hoping that in the next few months that he'll start taking my hand and leading me to the toilet when he has to go. We're a long ways off from that - but on the bright side, he does take his pull-up now and hurl it across the room. So that's a plus.

Anyway, if I seem to be incognito lately, it's because I am seriously living in the bathroom. I'm actually thinking of making it a bit more homey. Maybe adding some fresh cut flowers. Hanging up a few pictures. Setting up a mini-fridge.

And if we haven't invited you over lately - well, shoot, when have we ever invited anybody over? - it's because our house spells like 16 cats live here.

Nobody ever said that potty-training was pretty.

So there you have it. I'm being totally serious. When we're not doing school, you can find us in the toilet. Sitting and waiting. And sitting and waiting. And sitting and waiting some more.

One week down. Fifty-one more to go.

Comments

Amy said…
LOL Proud of you guys Leslie!!! And just so you know, I do my best thinking in the bathroom... just think of all the things you could come up with in there! ;0) Amy
Anonymous said…
Leslie,
I will say a prayer for you on the potty training journey. I feel like I've been potty training for years... Wait, I have been potty training for years. 12 years to be exact. I'm still not so good at it.
Melissa
C said…
If you get all of yours totally dry, day and night ... before I do ... I may just have to kill you!
Hello there I am Susarah mother of Bethany who is turning 10 yrs Dec. She attende the Westview School here in Houston and their process worked for us I hope it does the same for you. First get rid of pull ups unless you are outside the house, now buy those thick training pants. Take him every 30 minutes, wait 3-5 mins, if he does something reward with surprise item he really loves ( a toy he can only play with when he does something or "red" skittles in Bethany's case. Every 30 minutes for 2-3 days and then every 45 min for 2-3 days and lastly every hour for the rest of the two week period. Worked like a charm. Even my sister used it on her kids.Always praise attempts and reward success. It worked then go shopping for favorite pairs of undies.
Recovering Noah said…
Amy, I'm so envious of you! Didn't Aleigha potty-train herself at, like, 18 months or something. :-)

Melissa - see! I told you that you need to start a blog. Parents would flock to it! :-)

Christine - lol. You crack me up. I'm sure you'll beat me. :-)

Susarah - Love your name!! And thank you so much for the tip. I'm going to try that. We pretty much only put the pull-ups on when we go out - and we hardly ever go out anymore. I'm going to think of some rewards for Noah. That's the big one. Even when we did ABA, we were never able to find a good motivator. I think I have a very unmotivated child. Or - perhaps he's just really motivated to stay unmotivated. :-) Hopefully, I'll be blogging in a week's time to tell of our PT success!
Anonymous said…
You know I feel your pain, girl! Been there, done that. C was five before he was PT. I thought he would be in diapers for the rest of his life, and I actually went to a website for autistic children that literally said, "Don't worry, your child will not be in diapers for the rest of their lives." Seriously.

It will happen. Keep praying and doing what you know to do. One day you're going to look back and forget what it was like for him to be in diapers. I promise.
sandwichinwi said…
These days I am losing the battle but winning the war, I think. I was just bragging yesterday how Sunshine hasn't pooped in his unders in a week (well, except on Thursday) and then today, after lunch, it got really really really quiet. And I should have known better.

My fault, I guess, for not remembering to put him on the pot after lunch.

Someday he'll tell me when he has to go, right?

(Way to go Noah! Fling those pull-ups! You don't want 'em anyway! The toilet is where all the cool kids hang out!) 'Course maybe he's aiming to be one of those Goth anti-cool kids or something.
Blessings,
Sandwich

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