It's Potty Time!

It feels like we have been trying to potty train The Boy for months and months on end with no real luck. He has been going #1 in the potty for months but gets so lazy with a Pull Up on. He's worn Pull Ups for so long now that it is just really a diaper to him. Sigh. So, I have been feeling like a potty training failure. We will do so good all day long and then all of a sudden he'll get distracted and just go wherever which has been THE hardest thing for me. I can't handle pee and pooh everywhere. It makes me insane. Just the thought of him peeing on the couch or on the floor makes me anxious. For weeks I've felt like no matter how much I clean, it smells like urine wherever I go. Needless to say, it has been a great frustration. I have tried to be a patient potty trainer but there are times when I just can't take one more pair of poopy underwear. And so we revert. I revert. I give in to the Pull Ups just so that I won't have to worry about all of the above. And The Boy doesn't care. Then he doesn't have me reminding him every other minute that he is wearing his big boy pants and we need to keep them dry. And even though he won't go #2 in the potty, he totally knows when he needs to and will get a Pull Up just to go. We've ran him to the bathroom each and every time and he'll just simply say, "no, I can't poop on the potty" and he won't. He will put a Pull Up on himself just for that and tell us two minutes later that he needs his diaper changed.

But this week, this week I think we've had a break through. A small bit of success. He has been doing so good all week long and has been wearing big boy underwear with the exception of bed time. So today, with all of my anxiousness and worry to go along with it, we ventured out of the house in big boy underwear. The Boy & The Girl went over to The Gents's parents for a few hours so I could finish some Christmas shopping. I was nervous. I was terrified. I was praying that he didn't pee or poop on my in laws couch or floor because I would be mortified. I know it comes with the territory but I also felt like we can't revert one more time. I couldn't go to the Pull Up just to make it less of a worry for everyone (although believe me I thought about it numerous times). I kept reminding him in the car that he had big boy underwear on and if he needed to go potty he needed to tell someone. I wondered what I was thinking and thought for sure the carseat would be soaked any minute. As I reminded him again and again on the way to their house he finally said, "I got it, mommy." I was reminded at that moment how much he has grown up in the last three or four months. How much he has changed and how big he seems to me. He has these amazing conversations with me and he understands so much. For the first time during this whole potty training thing I felt like WE could do it. We both could. I've had friends tell me over and over again that I just needed to get over the issues with pee and poo getting everywhere and that he would do it when he was ready. It has been so hard. But I "think" I can let him wear his big boy underweare now without worrying every other second about it. I "think" I am finally there. I "think" I can finally just let him figure it out even if it does mean I end up scrubbing down the couch.

I worried the entire time I was gone that he was having too much fun and playing to hard to think about it. I thought for sure he had probably gone through the extra set of clothes and didn't have anything dry left. But when I went to pick them up, he was dry. He was in the outfit I took him in. He hadn't had an accident at all. I was so proud! I am sure that The Gents parents worried as much as I did about him going somewhere in their house and therefore took him to the potty a million times. But, it was a breakthrough! It was a success. We made it all the way home with dry pants. Success I tell you, success! I know you can do this buddy! (and so can I :-).