The Potty Project: Day 2

Today has been so much better than I ever imagined it would be. Let's just start by saying that when I woke up this morning, I was dreading having to work on potty training. But I'm so glad we kept at it! We've made lots of progress, I think.

First of all, I had a realization last night, I'd been setting Lincoln's timer for 20 minutes, like planned, but then if he didn't go I was worried and would try again in 5 or however long, but it was like I was constantly trying to guess when he was going to go, and I never guessed right. Anyways, it occured to me last night after we'd gone to bed, that the point of setting the timer every 20 minutes isn't to catch them when they have to go, but to teach them to hold it for 20 minutes and then go on the potty after that. If you can't teach them to hold it, you might as well still have them in a diaper, because trying to guess when they're going to go is impossible. But, today we also figured out that you can look for clues for when they do need to go. If they are grabbing themselves, or crossing their legs, then you can say, "Lincoln you're crossing your legs, that's a sign that you need to go potty, let's go sit on the potty for a minute." And that way it helps them to recognize, "Oh, when I feel like crossing my legs, that means I need to go potty." And they are learning too. We had 9 success in the potty today, and zero accidents on the carpet! Granted, there were a few time (about half) that he started going, grabbed himself and yelled, "Mom! I'm peeing!" And we would rush him to the potty and he'd finish up on there. But I'd say that's a major step in the right direction at least.

Also, we decided that we needed a new potty chair. The one we had was really hard for Lincoln to sit on because the base of it was so wide, and the hole wasn't very big, and it was poorly designed, meaning, even when he was peeing in the potty, it didn't keep the pee in very well, and there was always a puddle on the floor when we were done. Anyways, a friend recommended the "magic" $4.00 IKEA potty. We did some research, and everyone seems to think it is wonderful. We decided to make the long trip to IKEA. We had Lincoln pee in the potty before we went. Then we put a pull-up on him. As soon as we got to IKEA we took him to the potty. His pull-up was dry, and he peed in the big potty! He was actually really excited about flushing it down. You know those industrial toilets are pretty cool. Then we did our shopping, checked out, and took Lincoln to the potty again. He was still dry, but this time he didn't pee in the potty. We loaded up and went home. As soon as we got home we let him try out his new potty. He was still dry! Good for him. The new potty was so much nicer. Smaller for one thing, not as wide, and had a much bigger hole, and better blockers (don't know what else to call them) on the front and back to keep stuff in. We actually got a red one and a green one (one for my mom's house). Lincoln keeps switching back and forth for which one he wants at Grandma's and which one he wants here.

I know that every day will probably not be as good as today. In fact, I'm kind of considering today to be some kind of beginners luck. But I did think we made progress, and I'm really glad we kept trying. We'll see what's in store for us tomorrow.