Potty Training

I tried putting Zac on the big toilet last week to see what he would do.  First I sat him on with his clothes on and he was ok with that.  Then I took his pants and diaper off and he was a little nervous about that.  We tried it a few times and he started getting excited when I would tell him how big he was!  Friday morning he peed on the potty for the first time!  Without a potty seat.  He played with a couple toys for a minute and neither of us realized he had even peed until I got him down and saw the water was yellow!  I got so excited and we cheered and said good job.  A couple hours later I noticed his diaper was dry, so I sat him back on the potty and he peed again while playing with an empty toilet paper roll!  This time I realized when he went and we had a little party and got excited together!  Over the weekend we weren’t home much, but I bought a potty seat and big boy underwear. 

Today, Monday, we got serious as soon as he woke up.  We went right to the bathroom and he sat down and said “Cool!”  He peed and farted a few times!  We put his big boy undies on and have been on the potty about every 15 minutes.  He has peed 4 times in 3 hours!  I thought he had pooped after some grunting, but think it must have been a pee splash, because there was nothing in the toilet.  He’s had fun celebrating after he pees.  I gave him a sticker every time he has gone and he loves flushing the toilet!  We haven’t let him touch the toilet paper roll or flush the toilet until now.  We always told him that he can touch them when he goes potty.  Now it’s a reward for him!

He is napping now and only had one accident, which was just a little pee.  He also did a little trickle in his undies, but finished in the potty.  Not bad for our first 3 hours!  I’m so excited he has done so well!

That top part I typed up and have saved to post until now (2 1/2 months later).  I was clearly too excited to wait to write it down.  I’m glad I did.  He has done really well and we didn’t give up!  It was very time consuming in the beginning!  We were in the bathroom all day!  I didn’t realize it was a holiday over the following weekend.  Luke would have Monday off work.  When he’s off for the weekend, we aren’t home much.  I was worried about how Zac would do being out of the house and having to go in a different bathroom.  He was a champ!  He had no problem going on the public potty and has still not had any accidents in public.  He has peed his car seat a couple of times and once or twice at Grandma’s is all!  He’s only had a couple of poop accidents and they didn’t come for a few weeks after we started potty training!  He wasn’t ever afraid to poop on the potty! 

He did really well in the beginning going in the public restrooms.  After a few weeks he got a little nervous.  The automatic flushing toilets are the worst!  I think he got scared and would sit there forever before he would pee (if he would even go).  This was not fun, because I’d be squatting in front of him holding him up on the toilet so he didn’t fall in.  I got some serious muscles in my legs from squatting so long and often!  While he went through his scared phase, he was pretty funny.  He wouldn’t move his head up or to the sides to look at me or anything else.  He’d move his eyes only up or to the sides and would be so serious.  He also refused to talk.  When he would pee, he’d let me know by giving me the tiniest little grin.  He wouldn’t cry, but sometimes his little chin would barely start to quiver when he was scared.  I would take him off the potty and let him be done if that was the case.  I didn’t want it to ever be a scary thing.  Now he’s quick again and not afraid.

It took a week and a half before he would tell me that he needed to go.  I would just take him every 15 minutes for the first couple days, then spread out the time longer and longer.  Now he does pretty well telling me.  I only remind him after it’s been awhile and he hasn’t gone.  And I can now trust him when he says no when I ask him. 

Now I catch him saying “potty” (which sounds like pah bah) when he wants to get a break from something.  Like if he doesn’t want to eat his dinner or doesn’t want to sleep.   He found out it was the one thing I’d quickly respond to.  I’ve since caught on to his little trick of his.

Dad says no potty pics.  Who knows what people would do with those.  Not that I’d post any that show anything private :)  But look how grown up he looks in his Fruit of the Loom undies.  His bum fills them up quite nicely! 

Aunt Mandy gave us the funniest stickers.  They were from her school supply stash.  This one says “I am responsible”.  They made me laugh every time I put a sticker on him.  He loves getting a sticker when he goes potty.  He’d get excited for the sticker, but they didn’t stay on him long.  He’d take it off soon after and put it in the garbage.  He seemed to like them best on his leg or foot.  They stayed on the longest.  We did stickers probably for a couple weeks.

In the beginning we were in the bathroom for a long time each time.  We read lots and lots of books.  He didn’t like reading the books, just looking at the pictures.  We read lots of books with pictures and he learned a lot!  Colors, shapes, numbers, etc.  He became a little genius over those couple of weeks spent on the potty.  After awhile, he’d only ask for a book if he needed to poop.  It was so nice when he would just do his business quickly and we weren’t in the bathroom so long each time! 

We love how he tells us “I did it!” and how when he poops he says “Poop!” (which sounds like “Boof!”).

The next step is teaching him to pee standing up! Then he could just pee outside if we aren’t near a bathroom!

There you have the potty training story of my big boy Zac!