The Secret to Potty-training...

Well, we've been doing the potty thing for just over a week now, and I have to say that I'm very, very impressed by how well Miles has done!  I really think that the "secret" is two things:  1-age and 2-pull-ups. 

1-We potty-trained Tess when she was only 2y3m; Miles is 3y2.5m.  Even though Tess wasn't terrible to potty-train, it did take a lot longer and a lot more diligence on my part, as far as taking her to the potty on a pretty tight schedule to avoid accidents.  Since Miles is almost a whole year older, his body seems to recognize the "need to go" cues much easier.

2-Pull-ups are wonderful inventions.  Miles still feels like they are undies; we always call them his undies.  And when he does have an accident, it's SO NICE to not have to scrub gross carpet and have stinky pee-smell laundry!  He does have accidents now and then (he's had only about 2 or 3 pee accidents in his undies--not including that 2nd day last Sunday, before I started the pull-ups--and 2 or 3 poop accidents.)  I can live with that.  I'm much calmer, knowing that I don't have to deal with the messes, so the whole process is calmer and more positive.

So, here's hoping that it'll continue to go well!

Potty Training

Day 1: On Saturday Tess was feeling a bit sick, so we were being lazy and watching movies while Bryan worked on the basement...I decided that if we were just going to hang out at home, maybe I'd start the grueling process of potty-training Miles! We put on undies and brought out the little potty to the kitchen. I fed him a whole bunch of salty peanuts and all the drinks he wanted, including 2 Capri Suns and Kool-Aid, all before lunch! We set the timer and tried sitting on the potty every 10 minutes and he had success! He was doing great, and kept the same pair of undies and pants on all day. I felt great about it! We did a diaper for bedtime, which was sopping wet on Sunday morning.

Day 2: Sunday we stayed home from church; (lame excuse, I know, but I didn't want Tess's classmates to get sick, and I didn't want Miles' Sunbeams teachers to have to worry about the potty for him.) We continued with the undies and the little potty, but Miles started to really complain and fight me on the potty, saying that he didn't have to go... then he'd get up from the potty and within about 5 minutes pee on the carpet somewhere, soaking his undies, pants, and the floor. Blurgh. By Sunday night I was pretty negative...he had gone through 6 pairs of undies and pants, and I was sick of scrubbing the carpet. I was getting grouchy with him, and then feeling bad about it. I want the whole experience to be positive for him, because I know if I punish him and make it a bad experience for him, it'll just make it that much harder.

Day 3: Monday. Bryan was leaving for CA for 5 days and I was driving to Tooele to visit...I didn't want to stress or clean up pee all day, so I just put "pull-ups" on him and went on & on about how they are big boy undies too! He did pee in them that morning (and even pooped too, blurgh), but at least it didn't go all over while we were in Tooele. But something miraculous happened that afternoon at my sister's house...he started saying himself that he needed to go to the potty! He peed 3 times in the potty in about 1 hour! I had kept telling him that his body just needs to get used to it: we pee when we're on the potty, and we don't pee when we're up playing. I promised him that his body would get used to it eventually, and it seemed to on Monday!! Yipee!!

Day 4:  Today.  He came running in this morning, asking to take off his diaper, and I was elated to find out that it was bone dry!!  All day today we've kept the pull-ups on just in case, but he has gone in the potty each time he needed to pee.  Even while shopping this morning he said he needed to pee and I asked if he could please hold it while we checked out, and he did!  When we went into the bathroom he was still dry--Woohoo!!  (We're still working on going #2 in the potty, but I'm OK with that.)

So I'm very excited right now.  We'll see how it goes the rest of the week, but I'm crossing my fingers!!

Knock knock!

Tess is in the "knock-knock joke" phase. (And so, by default, Miles is in the phase too.) It's the phase that I think every parent dreads and despises.  There just aren't very many funny knock-knock jokes, and a five-year-old just doesn't get the concept most of the time.  Typical made-up knock-knock jokes go something like this:  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Octopus.  Octopus who?  Ha ha--I'm really a zebra!    You know what I mean; they don't make sense, they're not funny, and as a parent you just try to give a little courtesy laugh or a "you're silly!" to make your kids feel better about their budding senses of humor.

So anyway, driving in the van usually turns into knock-knock joke time.  I play along, just because, what else am I gonna do?  Today, however, was a knock-knock joke that actually made me laugh out loud.  Here goes:

Tess (to me):  Knock knock.
Miles:  Who's there?
Tess (to Miles:)  No, I want Mommy to answer!
Miles:  Mommy to answer who?
Me: laughing....

Bags on Heads

Oh, Miles makes me laugh.  Conversations with him are usually pretty funny.  Whenever we go grocery shopping I let him get one of the free kids' cookies from the bakery.  It helps keep him happy and occupied while I shop.  Today after loading the groceries in the van, I got in and Miles said, "Mom, why do they have bags on their heads?"  (I pause, while I'm trying to figure out what the heck he's talking about....finally, lightbulb!...) "Oh!  You mean the ladies who give you the cookies?....Those are called hairnets; they keep the hair out of the food." 

"What are the weird napkins on the cookies?"
"They are pieces of wax paper, so they don't get germs on the cookies when they hand them to you."

Now Miles has the big pause while the wheels are turning...

"Mom, I want to have some wax papers.  And I want you to have a bag on your head."