Potty Boot Camp, Day 1

I took off work today and tomorrow to focus on potty training our big boy.  Until now, he's been making some slow progress - going potty each night before bed and before naps, but rarely telling us on his own when he needs to go.

At the suggestion of my Aunt Ree (thanks!) I took him to the store last weekend to pick out some cool new underpants (he chose Woody & Buzz) and last night we took him to pick out whatever special drink he wanted (he chose blue Kool-Aid sugary juice bottles) and whatever special treat he wanted (he chose jelly beans).  

This morning when we got up, it was straight to the potty and then we were finished with diapers.  Only, to my dismay, he didn't want to put underpants on and asked for a diaper instead.  Totally did not expect that!  After a small bribe, I finally got him in his underpants and our day began.  Charlie went to Grandma & Grandpa's house so I could devote my time to Jack.  It turns out that was a good decision, as you will see...

After about 45 minutes I asked Jack if he needed to go potty and he said no.  About three minutes later he was looking out the window and said "Mommy!  The floor is wet!"  So we quickly went to the potty and finished (or so I thought!) what he had started.  After new underpants and shorts, we went back out to the kitchen where he promptly wet his pants again.  Back to the bathroom, on the toilet, wash hands, new clothes, back out to kitchen.  And then he did it AGAIN!  Phew!  Not a great start.

The rest of the day went a little better: lots of successful visits to the toilet with some pee pee in the pants accidents mixed in.  Luckily, other than the incident in Wal-Mart (I know, I should know better than to take my newly underpants-clad child to a store), the rest were harmless - either on a hard floor or outside so no carpet scrubbing for me.  Yay!

I learned a valuable lesson that will hopefully help with Boot Camp, Day 2: I need to make him sit on the potty regularly (probably every 30 minutes in the morning when he seems to go a lot and maybe every hour in the afternoon) instead of asking if he needs to go because for right now his answer to that question is almost always "no."

Overall I am proud that my big boy had several good times where he "held it" for awhile until he made it to the potty and he also had zero poo poo incidents.  We've got some work to do as he gets used to not just letting it go every time he feels the sensation, but we've got three more solid days of boot camp to go.  I'll keep you posted!