It's Potty Time, Excellent!

That's the song I sing to Micah when I make him go potty. The Wayne's World song. But I say "potty time" instead of "party time." Because potty training really isn't a party. I promise you.

Yeah, I guess we're potty training Mikey for reals now. He was acting all ready last fall, and he learned to pee in the potty when I asked him to, but he was just...not quite getting it. He was peeing all over my house. Like, 20 times a day. It was exhausting and frustrating. I kept hoping that he would tell me when he had to pee, but that never happened. And I had a newborn who was having barfing issues. Many things were happening. Then Christmas came and got all hectic and I just dropped it.

I was planning to potty train Mikey starting the day after his third birthday, at the end of May. I was getting mentally prepared. But then, last Friday, he told me he wanted to wear big boy undies. And he wanted to pee in the potty like a big boy. I thought to myself, "Ugh. Let's just do this thing."

I'm proud of myself. I've stuck with it for one week now. We're taking it slowly, one step at a time. I was taking him every half an hour for the first few days, and now we're up to about every 45 minutes or so. The first day, he had five accidents, but that number has been getting lower and lower, very slowly.

I've learned that each kid has something that motivates him. I really thought it was going to be candy or gum for Micah, but that hasn't done the trick. The threat of hanging out naked from the waist down is a huge motivator for him. So this is what we do - if he pees in his undies and pants, then he has to be naked until the next time I take him to go potty. OR, if it's time to go potty and he refuses to go, I make him hang out naked. And it mortifies him, so he's working really hard to keep those pants on. Praise is also a huge motivator for him. If it's time to go potty and he's stayed dry, I make a huge deal about it. And he smiles and smiles.

At first, his accidents were pretty big. Lots and lots of pee, all down the legs of his pants. But now, he's starting to catch himself after a few drops. So that's really good. He's telling me when he's had an accident, versus last fall, when he would have an accident and not care and not tell me and run around with urine all over him.

Pooping in the potty is an issue. It was hard for Sadie, too. I don't know why, but they're just really scared to poop in the potty. We started training on Friday, and by Monday night, Micah still hadn't pooped. I think he was somehow holding it all in. We were really concerned about this, so Ben gave Micah a suppository. And the dang kid STILL held it in!!! This is exactly what happened to Sadie when we were training her! Their will to keep that poop inside of them is so strong that it OVERPOWERS even a suppository! That's amazing to me. I do put Micah in a diaper for naptimes and bedtime - I'll continue doing that until he starts waking up dry. So what he's doing is somehow holding the poop in until naptime or bedtime, and then letting it all out. The stinker. (Literally.)

Hopefully, in time, we'll get it all ironed out. I somehow potty trained two kids already, so I know we'll get through it eventually.