Sooo... I mentioned that we were starting potty training, and today is the day! I figured we would give it a shot, since he's approaching age 3 and I am home for the summer. But truthfully, I was not super optimistic. Nikos is incredibly stubborn and strong-willed. If he adamantly opposes something (and there are many of these "somethings") he will not do it. Period. At the same time, he is very bright, and he definitely has the vocabulary needed to understand/communicate throughout the process.
With his personality in mind, I decided a Cold Turkey approach would be best. As weird as it sounds, he kind of has this need to do things in an "all or nothing"-sort of way. It's the same way he was with sleeping, too. We did sleep training, which was very rigid (fixed intervals, etc.), and BAM! He became an amazing sleeper. He likes rules and limits and rigidity, though he will often tell you otherwise. And so I read up on the Three-Day Potty Training plan, and it sounded perfect!
We started the morning in our usual way, eating breakfast. We had talked about potty training, so he knew it was a Big Deal and that today was the day! I actually offered to make him a special breakfast of blueberry pancakes to celebrate, but he said he wanted his usual instead (okay... less work for me!). After breakfast, we took off his diaper and put him in Big Boy underwear. This particular pair had Cookie Monster on them. And I told him the phrase that I would be repeating all day long, every few minutes: "Remember, tell Mommy when you need to go potty!" The system calls for me to repeat this frequently and never leave his side for the duration of the training (except sleep times).
About an hour later, when I went into the kitchen for two minutes to get a drink, he had his first accident. Of course, right when I had left his side!! He peed on himself while standing in the entry hall, and immediately began to cry. Partly because he slipped in it (ew!), but mostly because he did NOT like the sensation and the mess. We cleaned him up, and got him into some new underwear (these ones had monkey pirates on them). I reminded him again to tell me, and we moved on...
Later, he was playing with his cars when he suddenly had that oh-so-familiar pooping face! I told him to tell me if he needed to go potty... and he ran into the bathroom! I ran after him, of course. He said he needed to sit on the sea turtle (this), and he did! Gus was there, too. Nikos proceeded to push and pass gas like crazy (causing LOTS of laughter!), but no poop. Still, I was pretty impressed! He told me he didn't want to get the monkey pirates dirty and make them sad. I filed that one away... Note to self: Mention that the characters on his underwear don't like getting dirty!
Not too long after that, he made the monkey pirates sad with another pee accident-- in the exact same location (entry hall!). Gus airlifted him to the little potty (which I have been dragging around the house with us), and he may or may not have gotten a drop in there. Meanwhile, I cleaned up the floor.
Anyway, it's naptime now, and I put him in a pull-up with the little potty in his room. I don't think we are ready to go without diapers during naptime, so I will worry about that later. But for now, things are going alright! Here's hoping this method proves as effective as I think it will!
On a side note, though, he looks so ridiculously cute in his Big Boy underwear. I love it!! I would post pictures, but there are perverts on the internet. So I will just have to keep them as blackmail material for when he's older. :)
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