Will Potty for Dora Treats

     We finally did it. Bit the bullet and started potty training. It all began while we were at Mom's. Cooper was excited to potty and went in the potty several times..and not just tt (tee tee?). So I decided that when we got home we'd go for it.

     And we have! No turning back now. Cooper has done pretty good considering he's a boy and he's just over 2. At first we went through a naked phase. I'd heard that letting them run around without clothes would help, and it did. He had more accidents with underwear on than in the nude. Unfortunately for us, he loves to 'show off his physique' and 'if there's an audience to be found he'll be streaking around,' so getting out of the naked phase was a bit harder. We affectionately refer to him as The Streak at home, because that is his theme song.


     The other trick we used to help us along was to offer incentive. Now most parents offer M&Ms, but Cooper isn't a big fan of those (weird, I know), so we went with Dora treats...he's a big fan of hers. He gets excited about getting a 'gaga treat' when he goes potty. He can't say Dora for some reason, so it's gaga. I've also started throwing cheerios in the bowl at times to encourage him to go...it works. He also likes going outside..big help.
     Now we've moved onto the wearing pants and underwear stage. We have some cool underwear that   helped us to move past the streaking. His favorite pair has sports balls on it, and he likes his red ones because they look like grown up underwear like Daddy. And let me just say he looks so stinking cute in his undies!

Told you. He's flexing his muscles here too.

     After getting him to go in the potty at home, which is more successful some days than others, we had to tackle other places. Living 30 min out of town doesn't help much. Usually we have to stop on our way in to tinkle...just in case. One time we didn't and it was not fun to unbuckle him and see a wet seat. Much easier to stop. The only problem with stopping on the way is that he wants to pick wear he goes..he's not content to just do it right there by the door; he wants to walk to a fence, or to the rocks, etc. We're working on that though.

     He's done pretty well at other people's houses and at church. We've had to use our extra change of clothes several times, but the other day he had zero accidents while hanging out with Mere Mere all day. Woo hoo!!

     Now that he's a big boy, he does not want to wear diapers, which is great, except that we haven't gotten to nap and nighttime dryness yet so he needs a diaper then. The first few days were ok, but then he didn't want to put on a diaper at all. Hmmm, what next? We got some pull ups so that they looked like underwear. That worked for a few days and then the other night he had quite the meltdown about his underpants.

    When he got out of the shower he put on some pj shorts because he saw Daddy put on his boxers. Everything was cool until Daddy tried to get him to put on the pull up. He was not having it. He wanted to wear his 'boxers'. He cried, we tried to reason with him. He cried, we put him outside for fear of throwing up. He cried and Daddy put some briefs on under his boxers to show Cooper that he wears underwear too (I snickered). He cried and they sat on the back porch steps stumped and tired (it was after 9:30 by this point). I asked to help and after talking to Cooper decided to take another approach. There is a dinosaur on the front of the pull up. I gave it a name ...Bob (quick thinking)... and then pretended to hear what Bob was saying (that he really wanted Cooper to put him on so he could hang out by his belly button ... weird I know but it was late). Cooper listened and then agreed. Yeahhhhh!!! He was asleep 10 minutes later.

     The next day at naptime I pulled out another Bob only to find that this dinosaur was red and not purple...maybe Cooper wouldn't mind wearing Fred. He did. I found another Bob. I wonder what happens when I run out of Bobs in this package? Oh the fun surprises of motherhood.
     We've reached a point now...about 3 weeks in...where Cooper doesn't want to go on our command and yet he doesn't have complete control/desire to go himself if he's busy doing something else. He does tell us when he has to go sometimes, so we're making progress. Guess we'll just stick to bringing extra pairs of undies and shorts for now.

     Overall I'm very proud of my guy. He's a big boy and we've only changed diapers after nap and nighttime for 3 weeks. Wow!! Love to see him growing up in this way. God is good....we may not get to sleep all night, but at least we don't have to change stinky diapers on our 2 y/o.

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13

**If you are thinking TMI (too much information), remember that I might be using this to help with another little boy in a couple of years....so most of this was for my benefit.