I'm a Big Kid Now!

We are proud to announce that David Rocky has graduated from pull-ups to Thomas the Train undies. It hasn't been an easy process, and though I'm sure it's far from over, I can't explain the overwhelming elation I feel every time I hear that tinkle in the potty. One of the quirks of parenthood... you find your joys in simple things like well-contained and easily disposable poop. We bought the mini-potty nearly a year ago and used it as a step-stool, while Rocky used it as a place to stash pocket cars. All of his stuffed animals were trained before him. Fortunately, none of them made it to the big potty. His curiosity over the porcelain throne never turned into a desire to try but fostered instead a potty phobia. He was sure it would swallow him up. Even the mini potty was intimidating, as he would panic every time the seat stuck to his bottom when he tried to stand up. Since he never showed any signs of being ready, like wanting a diaper change or even noticing the lump at the bottom, we had to use force in order to meet the second baby arrival deadline. After discovering he was too scared to get off the potty, I would plop him on whimpering, then let him sit there with a stack of books until something happened... which sometimes took an hour. It gave me a chance to clean his room uninterrupted. It nearly took a crowbar to pry his bum off the seat when we were done but eventually the magic happened. After receiving candy bribes and parades with each success he decided it wasn't so bad. We tried the bare-bum approach. The downside was asking him every 10 minutes whether he needed to go and interpreting his "no" as true or false. There were messy repercussions when I misread him. Only Grandma K (and her bag of M & M's) was able to receive prompts from him. Finally, a few weeks later he is complying, being a big fan of his big boy undies. We haven't tackled night-time training yet, but we're on our way. If anyone has suggestions for that one, let us know!