Adventures in Potty Training

Sunday afternoon we started potty training.  We've taken a whack at it a few times before, but Liam was never ready or excited about the process.  This time, we're making real progress.

Proudly sitting on the potty with his big boy McQueen undies  :)

My method has been to keep him in just a T-shirt and undies.  This makes it quick and easy to pull down his drawers for the potty.  Also, it means less dirty laundry for me to clean.

I started out by putting Liam on the potty every 30 minutes, but now I just ask him often if he needs to go.  After a couple of big accidents and some with him just starting to wet his undies, he's now pretty good at telling me when we need to head to the potty.  Trouble happens when he's busy playing and doesn't recognize he needs to go until too late.  Each time I've taken him to the potty quickly, told him he needs to tell Mommy sooner, but have never gotten mad.

Whenever Liam pees on the potty, he gets a Skittle and lots of praise.  As I was typing this post, he did his first poopy and got two Skittles and even more praise.  I love seeing him so proud of himself, and excited to be a big boy.

This process has been a bit exhausting on my part: Constant reminders, lots of time in the bathroom, cleaning the carpet, washing underwear, and the inability to leave the house.  I'm hoping we'll be able to make a short outing come tomorrow, but I'm a bit afraid of whether he'll use a public potty.  Especially, since it won't have a training seat on it.  I guess we'll just give it a try, and have extra clothing on hand.

Liam is still wearing a diaper during his nap and at night, but his nap time diaper has stayed dry so far.  Even so, it will likely be a long time before we can go diaper-less at night.

-Anna