YEA JACK!

Just logged into the daycare "Watch your kid while you are at work" webcam, which I rarely do anymore. But, as you can read in previous posts, we have been on the potty train this week. We have been in pullups all week, but have stayed dry every day with the exception of a few instances of #2 (blech!) And so I have been telling him that he's doing great and soon he will get to wear a pair of big boy underpants, of which we currently have an assortment on display in a basket in his bathroom to entice him, including Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie, Thomas the Train and his favorite - 3 pairs showcasing the Pixar film - Cars. Last night as he made the last trip into the bathroom for the night, he picked up his favorite pair of underpants - featuring the ever cool Lightning McQueen, laid them on the bathroom floor, smoothed them out and bent over and kissed them. Lightning has a power in our house that is unsurpassed by anything.

So, I had to check to see if he's still in the same shorts I sent him in to school today because as we were getting dressed today he picked up his Lightning McQueen big boy underpants and held them out, looking at me with those big blue eyes as if to say,

"Mommy I can do it, I promise...please can I wear them?"

And so off to school he went.

And he's still in those same shorts and it's 3:15pm.

My little man is, as he says, "getting BIGGER!"

Ah the power of Cars continues to dominate the Rath household.

Progress

If I'd written this post on Friday, the title would have been something like "Looks Like We'll Wait a While" or "Regress" but alas, just when you think you know what the heck is going on as a parent, BAM! New day.



So, last week Jack was on the rollercoaster of potty training. Went to school in big boy underpants everyday and stayed dry all the way ...not a small feat when you consider we have about a 45 minute drive, and one day it was more like an hour. However, once there, although he would wake up from nap and RAN to the potty and made it, for the most part the days were filled with "accidents", sometimes in the middle of the room and sometimes standing right in front of the potty.



On Wednesday, the day of his graduation party, I dreaded thinking how he would likely have an accident, especially with all the extra parents and siblings in the room. And although I initially wasn't planning on going, the teachers convinced me to change my mind since they had a short program planned with a song and a little ceremony where each child was given a small construction paper medal to wear around their neck with a "best" moniker...Jack Rath - "Best Nature Lover". (I'm told he likes to lay on his cot at nap and look out the windows into the woods behind the center and watch for deer - go figure.) Cute moment, eh?






Not so cute moment - as the class sat in a circle ready to sing the song they likely practiced for months, my child turns facing me and all the other parents (instead of his friends) and says "I don't want Mommy be here!" Fabulous, and I was fighting the guilt the whole day that I had sacrificed being there later in the week for Duke's party. I'm thinking now I should have stuck with the 20 month old celebrations.


He did have an accident, 30 seconds after both his teacher and I asked him if he needed to sit on the potty. So by Friday when I picked up and learned that he'd had several accidents that morning and was in a pull up, I was fully prepared to go right back to the safety of his Cars pull-ups to try again in another month.



But that's just when BAM! shows up.



Saturday were a day of firsts:
First time tells me on his own that he needs to sit on the potty.
First time he makes it nearly an entire day dry between trips to the potty.
First time he calls me back to his room (by the way he is now in a "big boy" bed") so he can sit on the potty because he has more "pee pee coming out" and actually makes it to the toilet.



So, how about that! We are still relying on the pull ups rather than big boy underpants, mainly because he transitions to a new room at daycare Thursday and I really don't want to dump on the teachers a child who will likely be more interested in his new surroundings than keeping track of his body telling him when "it's coming!"



Of course, might be the cool new Melissa and Doug stamp kit his Mommy bought him on Friday to use as a reward if he actually puts his pee pee in the potty.



Either way, on we go.

Potty Training...I Think We Started?

in March...we started wearing Pull Ups that month. My mistake, if I had any idea how this was supposed to work I would not have been paying through my nose to only frustrate myself for nearly 6 months knowing that eventually the kid might actually tell me when he's ready.

I have not pushed, in fact I would like them both to be in diapers/pull ups for as long as possible because then I don't have to repeat myself 20 times an hour "Jack? Are you still dry?" "Jack? Do you need to sit on the potty?" "Jack, tell Mommy if you need to tee tee." Or worry on our 45 minute commute if my car is going to smell like pee for the rest of the time I own it.

Usually I am ignored when I question him. This weekend I got a new response, "Don't talk." or "Stop Talking Mommy!"

Hmmmm...do I read this as progress?

The girls at daycare assure me it is. He pleaded to wear "the highway ones" (Cars underpants) today and I let him. And he went through all 3 pairs of extra shorts and Elmo underpants I left at school with him. But I am told that's normal.

Let's hope so.

Duke isn't far behind.

And based on my level of stress with it, I may hire someone to deal with the second round.