So, a little over a month ago, Renee and and I threw a potty party. (I apologize that you weren’t invited, but we are assuming most of our readership is toilet trained). What is a potty party you say? Well, let me tell you:
A potty party is a day long extravaganza in which you pump as many liquids into an unsuspecting two year old as physically possible. When their bladder about bursts from pressure, you hope that said two year old is sitting on a potty. Or you mop up the floor. It begins by introducing a doll (Alfred, in our case) to the child and having the child teach the doll the importance of going potty in the potty chair and not in his pants. After having the child take Alfred to the potty chair to go potty, Alfred gets a treat if he goes. So then the child eats it and thinks: “Wow, I wonder if I went potty in the potty chair if I could get a treat too?!?!” You then move on to having the child sit on the potty chair and ask them every five minutes, “Do you have dry pants?” The child is supposed to check and tell you. This whole time you are stressing the importance of having dry pants. An overheard conversation from the Litscher household:
Ken: Jonathan, do you have dry pants?
Jonathan: Yep.
Ken: Daddy likes dry pants. Daddy has dry pants. Dry pants are for big boys. Wet pants are for babies. Are you a baby?
Jonathan: Nooooooooo, I’m a big boy!
Ken: Yes you are, that’s why you have dry pants. Mommy likes dry pants. Mommy, do you like dry pants?
Renee: Yes, I like dry pants. So does Papa and Nanny. They like dry pants too.
Jonathan: They do?
Renee: They do! So does Elmo and Goatee and Aunt Titi and Uncle Jon. They all have dry pants. Do you have dry pants?
Jonathan: Yep.
…..and on and on it went for 6 hours until nap time. The problem was…we started at about 8:00 and we couldn’t squeeze a drop from him until well after 10:30. We actually had him on the toilet when he first dribbled a little and were so excited…until 2 minutes later when we put his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear on him and saw him sitting in a puddle in the kitchen without a care in the world. And once you break the seal…look out.
We batted less than .500 that first day, but managed to stay somewhat sane. Over the next few days we began to get really frustrated because even though Jonathan knew he was supposed to pee pee in the potty…he never seemed to know when the pee pee was going to start coming out. Resolving to not go back to diapers, and doing a load of toddler underwear in the laundry each day, after about a week he finally started getting it. He would do this little pee pee dance when he had to go and squeal a little bit and we rushed to the potty. Finally, more success than not.
A month into it we are still having the ups and downs that are fairly normal (I think). It has been both harder and easier than we thought, if that’s possible, and we have comforted ourselves by knowing that he will be potty trained before he goes off to college.
We had a great time in the Smokies/Gatlinburg this weekend with some friends from Denver, and I hope to get some pictures of that trip up soon. I’d also like to apologize for the burst of notification emails you may have received a few weeks back…hopefully that’s fixed now. Hope you are all doing well
I’m glad to see you’ve also drilled into him the importance of having something good to read while maintaining the dry pants social preference.
This is true. Normally it’s Curious George Flies a Kite, as he didn’t appear all that interested in Les Miserables.
That’s sooooo funny. 😉
ah-hem. GATLINBURG??? You were that close?? Sure, it’s 2 hrs away but compared to where you’ve come from, it seems like our back yard!!
Will you email me your number? it’s time to plan our reunion!!
Aunt Titi does love dry pants!! =)
Thanks so much for that information. I am still working on Jeff for the same issues and really think that this technique may work. xoxo
So, Dan’s parents did this whole potty train in a day thing too and it worked well (so I’ve heard). Problem was he was four, it was Labor Day weekend, and they wouldn’t let him start preschool without being potty trained!!! Good job on pushing it on him earlier!!! We miss you guys -hope to see you soon!