It's Potty Time!

Alright. Enough is enough. I've tried the kinder, gentler, no stress on anyone potty training. It doesn't work. I have had Zachary on the potty every hour or so with absolutely NO success. He would just sit there holding it, and then once I gave up and put a Pull-Up on him he would then "go." There are times when having an exceptionally bright child is challenging. But I am smarter than my 3 year old. At least today I am.

So today, following my friend Michele's advice, I put him in big boy underwear. Yes, adorable little Fruit of the Looms, size 2T. Zachary woke up this morning with a dry diaper, which is becoming a normal occurrence, so I whisked him to the potty. I knew he had to go, and today I was determined to wait it out. I have a little potty for him in his bathroom, and another one downstairs in the hall bath. He sat on it, but nothing happened. He asked to sit on the big potty, so I, desperate to achieve success, allowed him to try it. We had a couple of drips, which I considered success, and then Zachary happily flushed the toilet. Then we proceeded downstairs.

His bladder wasn't empty however, and he began to dance around some. In the above picture he has the triangle from our pool table around his neck, it's a favorite toy and today I had to pick my battles!

The dancing began to intensify. I suggested we go to the potty but was told emphatically "NOOOOOOO!" Then it happened . . .

Yes, I managed to capture his first accident! He was just SO darn cute in those tighty-whities! The good thing, however, was that he did not like wetting his pants and was then quite eager to sit on the potty.


So he sat on his potty, I placed it in front of the TV to facilitate success. It was for naught, however, because he never went in the little potty. So . . . I changed the approach (keep in mind he still had not emptied his bladder the entire morning) and we decided to try the big potty.


SUCCESS!!! It was so exciting! Zachary is completely enamored with flushing the toilet, so that's his "reward" for going pee-pee in the potty. The subsequent time, he had a little "leakage" but no real accidents after that first one. That's no accidents all day! He went pee-pee on the potty 9 times today successfully. I was so proud of him. He likes flushing the toilet so much that he wants to go sit on the potty more often than he really needs to, and by the end of the day he would only empty his bladder a little so he could go again a few minutes later. Like I said in the beginning, sometimes having an exceptionally bright child is challenging!
After his nap we jumped in the jumpy house. Zachary was so proud of his big boy underwear that he didn't want to wear his shorts. He was so adorable, and I couldn't have been more proud. He didn't have a bowel movement all day, but he asked tonight to go to the water park tomorrow and go down the slide. I told him we'd go if he would poo-poo in the potty in the morning. He went to bed saying "I go poo poo in the potty tomorrow and I go down the water slide!" So perhaps we're going back to the water park tomorrow!

Now I must go get some work done. All in all we must have spent 3 hours total on the potty. This is the biggest time sucker I know of ~ it's like playing solitaire at the computer!! Of course, when he can go potty all by himself it will be all worth it!