potty training- hopefully the final chapter

I am screaming from the roof tops- Ryan could quite possibly be potty trained! I only say that because he went #2 on the toilet which has been the biggest issue for over a year and he did it yesterday. I have been promising him the moon if he would just get it over with and he did. Thanks to some "magic juice" and a lot of hanging out in the bathroom. Here is his prize-

The mega blocks are from before, he picked out a lego duplo zoo set that he saw on nickjr.com and then cruised the whole toy section of target to find it. He has been playing with it non stop all day- I have a small bag of mega blocks and I am selling them and just investing in a ton of duplo's. He LOVES them!  

Congrats big boy!

steppin out saturday- to the market

Mama:

hat- BP

shirt- old navy maternity

leggings- motherhood maternity

shoes- gap

Little Dude:

hat- old navy

shirt- A&E 77 for kids

shorts- old navy

barefoot- heck yes

Ryan loves the market its the only time he is guaranteed to be super happy in his stroller. As long as he can look at everyone's doggies and eat his way through its a lovely experience for all. I totally brought my double stroller this time! I only had one kid with me but the other side was perfect for all the yummy produce and beautiful blush colored peonies I bought. Plus I like to describe it as the difference between driving a Kia Rio and a Lexus. Both are great but one is just nicer than the rest. Vroom Vroom.

Most of the time I hate where we live. BUT there is this really cool part where we are so GREEN up here in the PNW and I am not just talking about the trees. It was the recycled arts festival- so much color and so much fun. 

 We almost took home this cat from the humane society. I wonder if hubs would mind?

So many herbs and other plants. Aunt Becca joined us for the day and it was a lot of fun. I love our weekly tradition of going to the market. I hope to raise my kids to love local goodness and their community.

Speaking of kids, you thought you almost got off the hook and almost let ya. But we are still working on the potty training. We didnt get the amazing 3 day results that others have gotten from that program and I was pretty bummed about it but almost a week into it I am not going back just yet we dont have a single diaper in this house. I have pull ups for errands and sleeping but thats it. Hopefully he will figure it out soon. He is ready there is no doubt about that, hes just stubborn and loves a good stand off.

Just thought I would add that as I am typing this baby jelly bean is flipping around like CRAZY in my belly :)

3 day potty training day 3

Day 3 sucked, nuff said. We started out what I thought would be a great day and even said I was feeling good about it on facebook. Oh no, it went down hill and fast. So many accidents, everywhere. It was like the first morning all over again. He didnt really care most of the time when he missed the toilet. He just stood there with no effort to make it to the potty. Though in his favor this morning he did make it to the potty but sat down and went WITH his underwear still on. But like I said that was short lived. He tinkled on the couch 3 times, went on a book, and all over the carpet and me.

I am so flipping frustrated I could scream. He has no trigger, nothing can scare him into obeying and there is no reward in his mind worth listening for. No matter what I do he just stands there with a blank stare on his face which is so stupid because he is so smart and knows exactly what we are saying. No treat or amount of praise will move him and no threat I can offer will scare him into action. Its going to be a rough go with him when it comes to discipline as it already is. After 3 days there is no way I can give up and go back I have to stick it out but right now I am just not having much hope. Its like nothing we've done the last 3 days even phased him he could care less. Why did I think this would be by the book, this is the kid who took over a year to sleep train and he still fights it.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

3 day potty training day 2

Today I witnessed a miracle. Ryan woke up form a full nights sleep dry. He woke up daddy (he was sleeping in our bed by this point) and told him he needed to go potty and made it to the potty seat! I wouldnt have believed it for myself if hubs didnt wake me up by throwing a dry pull up in my face and saying "check that out"

Over all today we only had 2 accidents one tinkle and one poop both times he said "uh oh" so he knew. I think the poo might take a while for him to get :( but it was such a better day then yesterday I didnt feel like I was pulling out my hair and that we all were happier. He is so incredible proud of himself and doesnt care about getting a candy for each time anymore.

We broke the rules again and the boys went to grandma's house while I had a photo shoot at the house this morning. Grandma has a potty seat there and he kept right along with what we were doing at home and tinkled a lot at her house too.

Wow this is actually working. Yesterday at noon I was ready to give up, I am SO glad we didnt. I know we will have accidents every now and then but this is for real, no more diapers. I am looking forward to seeing how tomorrow goes.

3 day potty training day 1

Its 2:00pm, Ryan is napping in what I am sure is a huge pile of urine. Yummy huh. My house is covered in tinkle. The couch, the carpet in 3 rooms, 2 seat cushions on my kitchen chairs.. I have been tinkled on twice. He LOVES to go in his new froggy potty. He has gone it a TON. So why does he still need to empty a full bladder on the floor. Part of our biggest problem is he is constantly going all day. He is like a faucet that didnt get shut off all the way- it just drips and drips. A little here, a little there. He has great bladder control when he wants to so I know he CAN. He just doesnt. Oh my heck I am so glad the first 2 days of this hubs will be home to help out I am going to lose my freaking mind.

Thankfully things started looking up after his nap. Which I am PROUD to say he woke up from bone dry :) He went in the potty and we went on with our day. We did break the stay at home all day rule and went swimming at our pool- but he didnt put a diaper on so I think we will be okay. 

Speaking of diapers we bagged up ALL of ours and had a talk about diapers are for babies and he is a big boy. I asked him if we knew any babies and he said NA NA, which is our friend Matthew. We walked down to their apartment and gave him the bag of diapers. No turning back now!

He hardly had any accidents this afternoon. He even had one little raisin sized poo.. followed by a big poo in his underwear. So incredibly gross. I tried to just throw them away but hubs didnt want to be wasteful so HE had to clean them off. I think he is starting to get it though he went tinkle on the potty SO MUCH. 

He is in bed now and wearing pull ups. I know Dr. Lora wouldnt be happy right now but we just dont think he has enough control to hold it all night long and I am fine with this choice. Who knows maybe he will wake up dry again! 

Proof at the end of day one we still like each other. I wouldnt have been able to survive it without hubs being home today and glad he has the day off again tomorrow! I am such a lightweight I would have died. 

3 day potty training

froggy potty seat- check
new buzz underwear- check
sour patch kids for tinkles- check
dum dum for poopies- check
stickers to mark progress- check

Let the fun begin tomorrow morning. We will be following the 3 day potty training guide to a T. I am scared out of my mind but everything he is doing is just screaming at us that he is done with diapers. I have been putting this off for so long and its not going to work til we hit it hard core.

potty training diaries part 2

photo by me, edited by L.M. Giberson photography

After sitting around all day long I realized that we could have been working on the potty training again! At 4:12 he put on his Thomas underwear and by 4:30 he had peed on the couch. 

I really hate the accidents. I know they are part of the training but I cant stand it. As soon as I have to clean up tinkle on my floor I run to the diaper hanger and give up. Ryan needs me to just get over it. He  is so ready for this and I worry that if we dont just push through now there is a chance that later on he will fight me on it. I have to go with the flow so to speak. Yes pun intended. 

We went through more pairs of under roo's than I could count between 4 and 8pm but he got the hang of it. He ran to the bathroom a few times even! There were plenty of accidents but thats part of the deal. I washed them all and we will be at it again in the morning. 

There was no way I was going to try over night, I am not that brave yet. 

day 1. success. 

things that yell in the night

Four days into this amazing year known as 2011 and its been showing us that life will continue to be real- sometimes in the good way and sometimes in the not so good.

Imagine for a second the most annoying, ear piercing sound ever. Nails on a chalk board style. That was the yell coming out of our sweet boy's mouth at 4:30 am. The last since he was born 19 months ago few weeks Ryan has been having a hard time sleeping through the night. Hes not hungry, thirsty, poopy, or anything he just stands at the rail of his crib thank goodness hes still in there and not a toddler bed, and YELLS. AHHHHHHH *breathe AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH cycle continues. I wish so badly it was a sob or a whimpering cry but no, its this off pitch, loud as you can, only drunken men at football games sound like this, yell. He will continue to hold the note longer and louder til we finally go in to ask him "what ever do you want?"

Last night we both had e-nough. One difficult night of making him "yell it out" and we would be back to our crazy version of normal. Ryan had different plans. At 4:30 he startled awake and the yell came bursting out. full. volume. Hubs checked on him then closed the door. We closed our bedroom door too, buried ourselves under 4 pillows and all the blankets just praying that he would shut up and go back to sleep.*insert evil laugh HERE* After 45 min of jaw clenching, foul language, and promises to beat his butt into next Sunday I got out of bed. Poor guy didnt know what was coming.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" said this mama! Actually I yelled nearly at the top of my lungs right back at him. That will show you mr. man child! Ryan burst into real tears and buried himself in his blankets. Just like we were trying to do in our room! I explained to him- in the best of my stressed out, sleep deprived ability, that this was not acceptable and has to stop now. I promised him that if life was this difficult I would sit in the rocking chair and watch him sleep. Oh dear does my neck hurt this morning!

Keeping my fingers crossed that all it took was 1 night of immature yelling by mom to make him cut it out.

I promised Ryan in his boy boy unders for you and here they are. I will be the worst potty training parent because I HATE the accidents. We still have them every time he wears underwear and he  is still honoring his vow of silence and wont talk, with those combined there is just no way around this. But darn he looks cute.

Potty training 1/4/11 = fail

 

Ryan had a hard time understanding why pooping in the tub and peeing on the bathroom counter do not earn you any "potty treats"

face lift

Like the new blog? I sure do! Jhen at From Here to Eternity whipped this up for me and it was so fun to work with her and get it just how I have wanted for so long. She sure is talented. What do you guys think?

There will be another installment of the potty training diaries coming soon.. Old Navy has 2T size boxer briefs that were just too cute. There will be and underwear modeling shoot later today. I feel like long socks and an air guitar might be in order.

Also at the bottom, NEW SONGS!

potty training diaries part 1

Probably the weirdest thing I have ever done as a parent. I have no clue what I am doing what-so-ever and letting Ryan lead 100%. Dr. Phil told me (and the other millions of viewers) that you cant control how the food goes in and you cant control how it comes out. I am going to document our progress so when I am pulling out my hair with future children screaming "how in the heck did I do this last time" I can just reference back.

17 months. Ryan starts showing interest in the potty so we bought a little squishy, sesame street potty seat. First time he tinkles! He loved it when I flushed the toilet when he was on it so we flushed 6 times and he got to have a snack (pictured above)

I wasnt going to hold my breath and glad I didnt. He was scared of it for the next month or so. I bought the 3 day potty training guide from Lora Jensen and planned on hitting it hard in February when he was the recommended 22 months of age and I had the 3 days to dedicate at home.

19 months he started asking to use the potty again, for real. Insisting almost. So we pulled sesame street out of the closet and let him try. Number 1 AND 2! I had to call my mom and share the great news. He continued to lead us to the potty a few times a day and was doing really well.

So we bought yo gabba gabba unders at the store and tried them out. I need to snap a picture of him in them because they are just to die for. The first hour in his unders he had 3 accidents and pooped on the bathroom floor- minor set back.

At this point we are just doing diapers and he is still asking to use the potty- in sign language, he still refuses to speak. We will probably try the underwear again soon if I have some days off from work. Plus of potty training he is obsessed with clean hands- he thinks washing them with the foamy soap is the coolest thing ever.

I will check back soon.