Hellobee

Potty training. I can’t lie and say I was excited about this hurdle in the parenting journey. As I have written about before, I learned as much as I could before dipping my toe in the waters, hoping to skip mistakes before I made them. Well, research and real life collided, as we finally ripped off the band-aid and started the potty training process in earnest. Even though Colin has been showing all of the signs of readiness for a long time, I was hesitant to start, fearing that I was rushing him through his babyhood because of a new sibling (and nervous about the sheer “yuckiness” of all of it). We are now one week in to the daytime diaper-free lifestyle, and because I know I have always been eager to learn from the victories and challenges of other moms, I thought I would share some anecdotes from the process from the beginning to our current state.

After months of narrating my personal potty habits to Colin when he accompanied me to the bathroom, one afternoon when I was at work, he told his babysitter that his baby doll “Baby Judah” needed to pee on the potty.  Up until that point, we had really only had Colin sitting on the potty before bath time, when he would frequently pee and poop, but otherwise, we hadn’t really done any intense practice. My sitter reacted beautifully, encouraging this role play, and they spent a long afternoon making several potty visits so that Baby Judah could pee and poop. Mr. Confetti and I continued this habit for the rest of the week, while Colin was still interested in this role playing exercise. In true two year old fashion, what was an obsession for a solid week fell by the wayside pretty quickly.

Finally, the first weekend in November, we decided to try a weekend without diapers and just see how it went. We spent the week leading up to it reading several different potty books (

After the first 20 minutes of potty success had passed, things degenerated slowly from there. Being trapped in the house for a full (and very cold) weekend, we had a ton of screen time battles, a grumpy child who wasn’t sleeping well and out-and-out refusals to even sit on the potty. We would play for a while and then say, “let’s go sit on the potty!” Cue meltdown. No, no, no! And then finally after holding it from 7 am until after 11:30, Colin promptly peed all over me. He didn’t care one bit about having an accident. We sat down for lunch, and he peed again. By the time we put him in a diaper at nap time and plopped him in the crib, we were a bit perplexed.

The same story continued throughout the next day and a half. Despite Colin showing all the readiness signs, the number one requirement for success – willingness to participate in the process – was totally missing. We gave up on Sunday around 5 p.m. and figured we’d regroup at a later date. And of course, go figure, the next morning, Colin woke up with a raging fever and by Monday afternoon, he was diagnosed with a double ear infection. We were a bit reassured that perhaps the resistance from the weekend could be attributed to illness, and tabled the conversation for a while.

Several weeks later, Mr. Confetti and I decided that it was time to give potty training another try. While we were creeping dangerously close to the “too close to the new baby” time period, we figured that Thanksgiving weekend offered a good window of time for us to try again, especially since it was an extended period with both parents home to tag-team.

We took a distinctively different approach this time. One that goes against much of what I learned and shared about in my last potty training post. First, we had a slew of rewards for C, and figured we’d see what caught his interest. He wasn’t as into the sticker chart, but his little mind was blown by mini-marshmallows. We weren’t stingy with them either. Because of his resistance the last time around to even connecting tush with toilet, he got a marshmallow just for willingly sitting on the potty, and another if he did #1 or #2 (and even a tiny drop counted – he basically got 2 treats every time he sat down). We also brought out some fun incentives to lure him to the bathroom – a new Daniel Tiger potty book with a button that makes a flush sound and a “special potty toy” that he could only use when he was sitting on the potty (a mini-magnadoodle toy that he had seen at a friend’s house and loved but we didn’t own).

Rather than going bottomless, we put him in his “super special Spider-Man underpants” and loose track-style pants, and told him that we would try to keep Spider-Man dry and clean. While we primarily used the regular toilet in the bathroom with a Baby Bjorn trainer on top of it, we also had a stand-alone potty available in the living room near where we were playing in case he didn’t want to leave the fun.

Again, first thing in the morning, Colin dominated the potty. But this time, lured in by the marshmallows, it was the start of something good. We asked him to come sit on the potty thirty minutes later, and zoooooom! Off to the bathroom he ran. Two more marshmallows for a couple drops of pee. Then, Mr. C and I decided not to nudge him as much, and just occasionally remind him to keep Spidey dry. About forty-five minutes later, Colin proclaimed that his pants were all wet. He was bummed. We encouraged him to take off his pants (which took him a while, allowing the experience to sink in) while expressing that he had an accident and that’s okay, but next time, he should try to keep Spider-Man clean and dry. From there, we made the decision that staying cooped up in the house was not mandatory. We made sure to try to pee before leaving the house, and then headed to the dog park. He managed to stay dry and peed when we got home.

The next two days went just as smoothly. No more big accidents, but because of our comings and goings, we just scheduled potty breaks before and after our ventures. By day five, I was totally thinking “we got this!” and then, it was as if Colin could read my mind and pissed all over my smug potty-dominating outlook. Days six and seven have each had a couple of accidents, much of which can be attributed to stepping back and seeing if he could let us know when he needed to go.  adly, we just aren’t quite there, and I assume if we waited until he was older, this part would be less challenging. But I know that this is still more of a journey than a destination, and while we aren’t nearly finished, we have taken great strides toward success.

All in all, it really wasn’t as terrifyingly gross or traumatic as I thought it would be. We are still using diapers for nights (he wakes only slightly damp) and naps (usually wakes dry). Heading to the potty is not really a battle, and we only give treats once or twice a day. Thankfully, Colin has always been comfortable pooping on the potty, so #2 has gone hand in hand with #1 in the process. This hasn’t been particularly fun, and it’s tough (and I’m sure there will be regressions along the way, with the new baby and other changes potentially coming our way), but I’m definitely glad we did it, and I truly couldn’t be more proud of our little guy.

How did potty training go at your house?  Did your strategies work out or were you forced to adjust?  Any words of wisdom or tips to share with other readers still gearing up for this adventure?