Tales from the potty

He dragged the potty out on the balcony to do his business.

After lots of readiness signs, we decided to try potty training Carter at 24 months old.  I was on spring break, and of course there is no better way to have a fun-filled rip roaring time than to potty train.  We were pretty non-committal, so if it went badly we would just forget it all together.  The week prior we read Superhero Potty Time and Big Boy Undies.  We got a cute green potty from IKEA and talked a lot about it.  I set Carter on it in his clothes and he pooped right away, in his diaper.

Big boy underwear!

Day 1- I was way too nervous to let Carter go naked, so he just wore his diaper.  We put the potty in the living room for easy access.  I made an adorable sticker chart.  The first time I put Carter on the potty without his diaper he peed!!  We made a big deal out of it and put a sticker on his chart, which he LOVED!  After 2 pees in the potty he understood how to earn stickers, so he wanted more.  He would sit down and squeeze until a little pee came out and then I would give him the sticker.  Then he would say "more, more" and go back to his potty and squeeze more out.  He would pee in his diaper also throughout the day and at nap time.  At the end of the day he had peed 12 out of 12 times while sitting on his potty.  He peed every time we sat him there, but only pooped in his diaper.  We were pleasantly surprised, actually we were shocked at how ready Carter seemed to be.

Day 2- After Carter's success on Day 1, we thought he was ready for his big boy underwear.  The morning was perfect, he peed every time we put him on the potty and he did his first poop!  We were thrilled and gave him candy.  Once he learned candy was a prize he kept asking for it after every pee.  I tried to explain that he has to poo to get candy, but to him pee and poop are the same thing, I think.  By the end of the day, he had pooped in the potty 3 times and peed tons.  He even kept his diaper dry when we went out for 3 hours.  After 5:00 pm we got a little relaxed and he had 3 accidents in his underwear, one was poopy.  YUCK!  Overall, Carter did an amazing job and loved getting candy!

Day 3- Before we left for church at 10:30 am, Carter had already pooped in the potty 4 times.  We're starting to think he's intentionally cutting his poo short, so he can get more candy.  If that's even possible.  While Blair was brushing his teeth, he somehow pooped on Blair's leg!  He wore a diaper at church and at nap time.  We had failed to do laundry, so he went naked booty at home.  He even started sitting on the potty himself when he had to poop, while I just sat on the couch and watched.  He only had 1 accident, 5 poops, and around 13 pees in the potty.

Day 4- Carter was sitting on his potty today and reached behind him to grab a book off the shelf.  He then sat there and read for awhile, just like Daddy.  He has a total potty obsession now.  When he pops off the potty, he immediately says, "Tandy?" (candy).  He even likes to dump it out himself.  We took him out today with big boy underwear and he told us when he had to go, so there were no accidents while we were out.  At nap time he waits until he wakes up to go.  A few hours after he went to bed for the night, he called for Daddy and then we let him pee in his potty.  He was waiting, even though he had on a diaper.  The only accidents he has are when we're home and we don't get his underwear down in time or if he's watching TV.

Day 5- We were at the mall today and we let him wear a diaper.  He said to me "No poo poo in stroller." I told him he was wearing a diaper and it was ok to poo poo.  Well he waited 3 hours until we got home and then went pee pee.   I was so proud of him.  He really gets it!  I think the next step is using a public toilet, which we haven't attempted yet.  I hate germs.  We're still nervous to go on long outings with big boy underwear because it's hard to get home fast or find a clean place to potty in HK, but I think we need to keep moving forward with the training. 

Sticker chart