Potty Training...Almost There!

Parker has been going pee pee in the potty for a while now. The only snag has been pooping in the potty. He flat out refused to go in the potty. I think it came about because he was constipated so it hurt when he went and he associated the hurting with the potty. I finally took a break from getting him to poop in the potty. I told him if he had to poop to tell me and I would put him in a diaper. He wears underware unless we are out and about for a while, but for pooping the diaper was his comfort. At first, he would freak out about pooping no matter if he was in his diaper just because he was scared of it hurting. After a while, that stopped so my next step was to get him to poop in the bathroom. He just had to stand in the bathroom in his diaper to poop. I told him that we poop in the bathroom and soon he will be pooping in the potty just like mommy and daddy. He got that down good. So finally, I told him no more diapers when he had to poop. He was not too happy with me when I wouldn't put his diaper on for him to poop. He kept handing me a diaper and saying "biper." I stayed strong and used distraction. I told him I would go get the special potty book to read if he sat on the potty. We read Usborne's Potty Time book.

It worked! That calmed him down so I went to get another book to read. While I was gone, he pooped in the potty!!!!! I made a big deal about it. You could tell he was very proud of himself. Then later on in the day, he had to poop again. This time there were no please for his "biper." He just sat right down on his potty and went. I am hoping this is the start of being completly potty trained. Well, at least during the day. It might be a while before he's diaper free at night.

This is what you get...

when you are potty training and you need to wash a load of laundry.

I laughed so hard when I put the shoes on Parker so he could go take off the trash with Paul. I laughed for about 10 minutes. Is it bad to laugh at your child like that?

Speaking of potty training, things are progressing. We are having few accidents. He did really well on Sunday although I thought he wouldn't since he was wearing a pull-up. I think he was excited to have a new audience to tell that he went "pee pee" in the potty. We are still having trouble with him pooping in the potty. He goes and gets a diaper when he feels like he needs to poop, and most of the time he poops when he's in his diaper during nap time or before bed. Well, it's a process.

Day 2, 3, and 4

So I have to admit things aren't going as well as I hoped. Ellis is quite the stubborn little thing. She cries and cries before she will finally fall asleep and still only sleep for maybe 30 minutes. Of course, I haven't helped. The past 2 days I have gone over to my sister's for supper, so therefore she has taken her evening naps in my arms. I know that consistency is the key, and that doesn't help with the consistency.
As far as Parker goes, yesterday and today he's been in diapers. He wanted to wear diapers so I let him. You maybe thinking, "You're the parent. It's not about what he wants."  Yes, that's true, but I also know that toddlers love to do what you don't want them to do and hate to do what you want them to do. So, I'm playing it cool on the potty training thing, like it doesn't matter to me if he wears diapers or underware.  We'll try again in a few days, and see what happens.

Day One of the Kid's Resoutions

So I made some resolutions for my children this year. I made some for myself as well. Well, I made goals. I like to say goals rather than resolutions. Anyway...
If you've read my previous posts on Ellis, you know that she is not a good napper. She wants to be rocked to sleep and then she doesn't sleep very long. I know that she has the ability to fall asleep on her own because she does it at night and sleeps all night long. So, my goal for her is to get her to fall asleep on her own for naps. I can't really control how long she sleeps, but that will get probably get better on it's own since she is starting falling into a more regular nap schedule.
My goal for Parker is for him to be potty trained. I haven't really worked hard at potty training him yet. He has some underware that he has worn occasionally, and when he is interested, he uses the potty. But I'm ready to cut down on buying diapers, so we are cutting out diapers except for when he's sleeping or we are out and about.
Day one results:
For Ellis, she cried for a little over an hour for her morning nap, then only slept for about 20 minutes. For her afternoon nap, she cried for less than 15 minutes and then slept for an hour and a half! I was so amazed. I guess she was so tired from her morning nap protest. She cried or I should say screamed for 30 minutes for the evening nap and then I got her up because at that point it was pointless for her to take an evening nap. I just put her to bed early. All in all, not bad for day one.
For Parker, I'm currently washing almost all of the underware we have for him. He wet every pair that he put on except for the last pair that he had on before bedtime. But that said, he did well. He would start to go and then realize it and he would come and get me and finish in the potty. The first couple of times were the only ones where he went enough for it to get on the floor. So, he made progress throughout the day.