Pinterest Challenge #8-9: Potty Training and Such

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8. Bathroom Sink Extender for Little Hands
source: Sidetracked Sarah
worth doing again: Eh. I guess. Minimal effort, and handy.

About the third time I had to lift Charlie to wash his hands (during day one of potty training) I realized that my belly is HUGE and this was a ridiculous thing to be doing at 24 weeks along, so I pulled a baby shampoo bottle from the tub (where it was serving as a bath toy) and hacked it up with a pocket knife to fit over the faucet, like so:

Its not cute, but it works great. Another solution, of course, would be a taller stool (or child... jk, jk) but we already have four stools in this house somehow. 6 if you count the two for ME.

9. Potty Train Charlie (yikes!) in 3 Days
sources: Potty Train in 3 Days from Happy House of 5
10 Tips for Potty Training Your Strong-Willed Child from The Pinning Mama
worth doing again: Obviously. But hopefully not for like 3 more years, when baby girl hits 2.5!

Oh man. I have been pinning potty training advice for months gearing up to train Barles. And while I read many, many articles, these two were the ones I drew the most from. I also got some great tips from other moms, my favorite of which was Melissa's idea to put a tarp down in front of the TV since I have carpet(!).

I decided to train during Steve's first month of internship (if he's got a challenge, I should give myself one, too, right?). So I gave Charlie a week to adjust to Daddy being back at work (I'd read that too many changes at once are not easy on littles), and scheduled day one of potty training for this past Monday. I was so nervous the night before that I actually had butterflies/anxiety/trouble falling asleep!

We followed the rules of the 3-day potty training thing: wearing just underwear (no Pull-Ups/diapers except at nap/bedtime, and no other clothes), filling him up on water, and taking him every 30 minutes for the first two days. Then day three just asking if he needed to go. I also used several tips from the second article (about training your willful child) including:

1. Have a plan
2. Be enthusiastic, and DON'T get angry
3. Make the timer the boss
4. Give them choices/avoid power struggles

A couple days before starting we bought a Costco 8-pack of Pixar underwear, a big thing of m&ms for rewards, a new Camelback water bottle with excavators and dump trucks on it (he is in heaven), and a highly-rated-but-cheap potty seat with handles for the toilet. (I decided to skip the gross kid-potty where they have to dump pee from a bucket into the toilet this time. I did it with Gracie and then I just had to re-teach her to use the big toilet later. Plus the pee bucket is nasty.) We also started gearing Charlie up, telling him he would be using the big boy toilet and wearing underwear and getting m&ms and HOW COOL HE WOULD BE!

Monday morning I took Charlie to the bathroom first thing and then put him in underwear. We had breakfast, and I laid out a waterproof tablecloth (which we usually use for outdoor picnics) on the floor which I convinced him was SUPER cool to lay on while we watched hours of TV and he drank tons of water from his excavator water bottle. He had two accidents the first day, both in the morning, and the first two times I put him on the toilet we read a book and he said he wanted to get off. After the second book I just asked him if he could get his pee pee out (I know, I know, I am a MOM) and he thought about it for a second, and then just did it. Like it was no big deal. He got really excited, too. He would RUN to the bathroom any time the timer went off SO excited to go again. It was unreal.

We watched like 6 HOURS of TV the first morning...

We had one tiny accident yesterday (like SO teeny) but he stopped himself and asked to go to the bathroom. And today, day three, was the first day without using a timer or going every thirty minutes. I took him at 7, after changing him out of his diaper, and then at 9 I asked if he needed to go, and he said no. Finally at 11 I made him go. This kid has killer bladder control!

We still have some work to do (putting his clothes back ON by himself, not arguing about how to wash his hands, and getting the, uh, non-pee stuff into the toilet, which he so far refuses to do) but all in all this was an awesome and fairly easy experience. I give him full credit--he was totally ready, and took the bull by the horns. We may just try to leave the house tomorrow morning. :)