I posted ages ago about considering potty training Tucker. I started thinking about it last summer, and we took a few half hearted steps, but nothing really serious until recently.
One of the problems was that I had bought a potty chair and a potty seat that didn't work for a boy. Not to be too graphic, but unless there is a pee guard, there is no way that a toddler boy can pee sitting down without aiming or making a big mess. Until I found a potty chair that didn't need the advanced skill of aiming, potty training was pretty much an impossibility.
Tucker helped choose the potty colors and was thrilled when the potties came in the mail. I bought a lot of training pants and devoted several days in a row last week to not leaving the house and filling Tucker with fluids so that he had a lot of opportunities to practice the whole thing.
At first I thought he might never get it, but by the second full-time day, he definitely knew what was going on. We have reached the point that he can be basically accident free with peeing when he's at home with us, although it does take a certain amount of convincing him that he needs to stop playing and sit on the potty. In fact, this weekend we started having a battle of wills about sitting on the potty, and it was getting pretty frustrating for all involved.
The solution: consequences. We don't make him sit on the potty if he adamently refuses. But, we have taken away all his matchbox cars and trucks and placed them on the mantle of our fireplace. He needs to earn them back by using the potty. Each time he successfully goes on the potty he gets one back, and each time he goes in his pants, we put the last one he got back on the fireplace mantle. I have to say this merit/demerit system has placed the decision in his hands. If he adamently refuses to go when we know he needs to, then he has an accident and loses a truck. It is very motivating for him.
Of course, we still have our challenges, namely going #2 and being comfortable going to the bathroom outside the house. It also would be nice if he eventually told us (or at least didn't deny) when he did need to use the potty.
But progress is occurring, and we're a little more than a week into it. Still, if you wonder what I'm doing rather than blogging, this is it.
