And so my most dreaded stage begins . . . the Potty Chair. Long chats about wet, dry, penis, butt, pee pee, and poo poo. One sided chats at that when your boys don't use words much. Yes, we have entered the mysteries and horror of potty training, although I am starting with only Tsega and we are proceeding slowly. I will not post pictures of him sitting on the potty nor will I describe in detail his personal moments of triumph and failure. Let's just say we are doing the Naked Butt Method and he is 100% perfect as long as he is bare. A pull up or undies on however (yech, boy undies). . . we're working on it.
Yes, I realize the pull ups in above picture are intended for girls. (Yes Grandma Betty, I knew before you pointed it out to me--you funny, but didn't he look cute in them?) They didn't have the right size in the alleged boys fashion but come on, what 2 year old boy doesn't want to look at a cute little ballerina on his bottom? (OK, maybe when I asked Tsega if he wanted to grow up and be a ballerina I pushed it a little . . .) Bereket walked around with the pull up package for 2 days but I couldn't tell if it was Dora or the cute thang modeling he fancied.
I digress and will end it here. I am hoping Sira and Bereket will do what they do so well and learn the art of potty control by mimicking. But won't this make my public life harder? How am I supposed to get all 3 boys into the bathroom and succesfully contain them while helping each do their business? They are like wild horses! (Confession: I don't know what the hell I'm doing and fear I am too lazy to get my kids trained.)
14 comments:
I'll tell ya, I never used to understand why parents let their kids remain un-potty trained for so long until I had kids myself. It's so much more convenient when they're in diapers and you can change them whenever you want to.
I think you've got the right idea focusing on one kid at a time. I was hoping the mimicking would work here, and it's definitely helped, but one of my kids is a contrarian by nature and won't do anything unless it's on her own terms.
Public outings have become quite involved, as we always go to the bathroom as soon as we get somewhere and right before we leave. Sometimes I think we spend more time in the bathroom than the establishment proper!
And the conversations about body parts and bodily functions are pretty hysterical. Just today I caught one of my kids nekkid, looking in the mirror lamenting the fact that they didn't have both sets of anatomy. I think that's a conversation for another time!
Anyway, good luck. They'll get there eventually.
don't forget long car trips when you hear a plaintive wail from the backseat...."mommy i neeeeeeeeed to go NOW"
watching your son standing on the side of the road in a snowstorm trying desperately not get his pants wet is the stuff memories are made of.
have fun times 3.
Echoing Jayme here. I think we are just about out of the woods since more often than not we make it through the whole day dry about 70% of the time, but we do spend a great deal of time in public bathrooms since she goes to the toilet at least once an hour. Not sure how you would manage that with three. I think training will be easier on you this summer when you can let the three of them run around in the buff in your yard.
Oh and as for the gendered undies, my Sunshine prefers Diego, Thomas the Train, and Wall-E (in that order) whitey-tighties to her My Little Pony, Dora, or Princess undies. Maybe we should negotiate a trade.
you have to keep us updated on this. I am going to hold off on the boys as long as i can i dread that day. I am going to let you go first and let you train me on how to train them :)
Oh GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!
The dreaded potty training. Jacob still uses pull ups at night. He loves Dora and we have used Dora at our house also. I did have to take him out of pull ups during the day and just let him learn when he was training. It seemed to work. Let me know if you have tips for staying dry at night though.
It's tough for sure, but about being lazy -- fear not! Nobody comes to grade one in pullups. Even if you do nothing, they will figure it out. The bare bum method is a good one, especially with hardwood floors. And summer is coming soon, and so they can just have a season of pantlessness. It'll all work out.
I don't envy you trying to herd them all in a public washroom though. Family bathrooms! That's the way to go!
If it gets really bad my friend, just put a pair on, grab a bottle (or box) of wine and go hide in a closet.
Potty training is the pits, or the piss as the case may be.
Good luck.
it pee-town around here too. I must say that pottying has made my life easier, not more difficult, with each of our 4 babes. Noah has recently mastered the whole deal...pee about 3 weeks before poo, for which we put on a diaper when he needed to do his thang. It took about 2 weeks before he went in a public bathroom, fortunately he would just hold it because he really doesn't like being messy (lucky for me!)
After the first month or 2 is over you'll be in heaven, no diapers, accidents few and far between, self propelled need to pee declarations. It will come, it always does. I have yet to see a 5 year old in diapers...even when the parents do nothing.
good luck with the herd!!
Wasn't pottytraining one of the circles of hell mentioned in Dante's Inferno? Well, I think it should have been. I know that I am losing my patience already and I haven't even completed one twin yet. Argghhh. If you solve the mystery, please keep us posted. Otherwise, like the other comment said....I will need to stock up on wine.
And, Ben would absolutely be jealous of the Dora trainers.....he is in love with her.
Good luck,
Cindy
My condolences...training the twins was actually easier than training my older singletons, because they did very well with it, for some reason. Unfortunately, my son has kidney issues so he spends a lot of time having to go to the bathroom. This makes our trips outside the house rather frantic at times.
On a totally unrelated note, after 4 girls, I got a total kick out of little boy underwear. I guess you get your kicks where you can.
Good luck!
You will either get them trained or someday they will train themselves. And yes, it does make life more difficult once your children are potty trained until they can 100% independent, which takes at least a couple of years. I learned something with Candace, though. Wherever she was, the potty chair was there, too. Yes, this meant horrifying my mother-in-law at the family reunion. It also meant pulling off the road in any parking lot to potty, which made the potty training experience much easier. It was much quicker to go in a parking lot or road side than it was to go to a gas station. Also, do you really want their little hands touching a public toilet seat? Have fun!
OMG! I share your horror and sentiment about potty training. I should feel better about only having to contain two in the public restrooms. I've threatened putting a potty chair in the car for outtings, that way I can make them go on it in the hatchback instead of being plagued by ominously lurking bacteria and germs in the public space and I can throw the other one in the back seat while we're using the potty in the hatchback. Won't that be a sight to see in the parking lot!? LOL Good luck. I'm dreading the whole process too.
Hi, I found your blog while searching for adoption-related blogs. Congrats on those three beautiful boys.
Our son was pretty easy with the potty training. I have to credit my husband for that. He followed his dad's lead, and rather than start off with sitting, he stood on a stool so he could aim in the toilet.
One issue we can't get past is the direct aim. When pee goes on the floor, one must take the time to clean it up. Nobody but me seems to see it ponding around the toilet.
I used the "naked butt" method with my son. He's four, and was trained at 2 and a half. I found the same thing, that he would have an accident if he was wearing underwear. I thought about it, and ended up buying boxer briefs instead of regular briefs, and put baggy very lightweight shorts on him. I guess he could feel the sensation without anything pressing on him. It did the trick, and he stayed trained. He had very few accidents. I kept him in the boxer briefs for quite a while.
You have your hands full with three to train. The others most likely will want to do what the trained one is doing.
They are adorable!
Patty
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