Procrastinet

Liveblogging P-Day - August 27

filed under: Dadditudes

For weeks now, we've been touting August 27th as the day we'd do Potty Training. While the current trend in potty training is based on Dr. Phil's "Potty Party" (which sounds a bit fetish-y to me), we're doing the favored method of a few years ago, the "Naked Weekend." The idea is that the kid stays naked all day so that they notice when they pee, rather than just doing it unconsciously into the diaper.

Since both Lisa and Max have off from school this week, today is the beginning of "Naked Weekend." Max has had the date memorized for a while - when we asked him "what happens on August 27" he'd merrily shout "POTTY TWAINING!"

Lisa has drilled him on the rules all week: we've got a potty chart and stickers, and he gets to put one sticker on for each pee or poop on the potty. She's gotten presents, and he gets one present for the end of the day if he has three pee-pees. The first time he has a poop he gets a big present.

Potty training day. Let's see how this goes.

2:12am - Max crawl in bed with us, to nurse his cold by turning himself entirely sidewise in our bed and relegating us to the edges for the rest of the night.

7:43am - Max wakes up. Cranky. And sad. He heads out into the living room with us groggily following.

7:44am - Max sees that I have gotten up as well, and freaks out. "Daddy I want YOU to go BACK to BED!" he says. Sadly, I can't take him up on it, as we've already determined that both parents will participate in Potty Day.

8:02am - He has cheered up enough for us to start the P-Day festivities. We print out his potty chart with much fanfare, and show him the stickers. He announces a change to the rules - rather than a star for each pee-pee and a Pooh sticker for each poo (yup), he wants a pooh sticker for all potty activity. We allow the rule change.

8:03am - The pants come off. We say "bye-bye" to the departing diaper. We tell him that any time he gets "a feeling" he should shout "potty" and we'd put him on it to pee-pee.

8:16am - In the living room, Max shouts "POTTY!" We rush him to the potty, and he sits.

8:17am - "I PEE-PEE'D!" We check the bowl and sure enough. There is much jubilation, as the whole family dances ritually around the potty.

8:18am - The presentation of the first sticker. SO PROUD. We remind Max that if he does three of those, he gets "Lily's numbers" as his first present (the big foam numbers he fell in love with at Lily's house last weekend).

8:27am - In the living room. Max sits again on the potty. "I PEE-PEE'D" he shouts. Um?

8:28am - Second pee-pee confirmed. About three squirts' worth. Still, that counts, so we shout and dance and put another sticker on. "Only ONE MORE and I get LILY'S NUMBERS!" shouts the kid.

8:31am - "I PEE PEE'D!" Four drops. We dance with waning enthusiasm. "Dump it out, Daddy!" shouts the kid. "AND I GET LILY'S NUMBERS!"

8:32am - Lisa and I pass on the way to and from the bathroom. We lean towards each other. "This it totally bending the rules," she says, carrying him Lily's Numbers.

"We're getting scammed," says me.

8:44am - Daddy, deciding that the whole family should get in on the action, announces "Daddy's going to the potty!" For purposes of more encouragement, shouts "Daddy made a poop!"

The kid goes for it. "You DID?!" he shouts from the living room. "YAY! I come GIVE YOU a HIGH FIVE!" He rushes into the bathroom and slaps my hand. I feel quietly proud. I have no chart, so I get no sticker.

8:47am - Max gets quiet. "Are you listening to your body?" asks Mommy. "No," says the kid, "I'm too tired..." But then he sits on the potty. The whole family is quiet while he concentrates. "Uh!" he shouts, and stands up. The potty is full of pee. "Hooray!" we shout, and dance around.

9:05am - Sits, pees. "I pee pee'd!" "Yay." Kid's been going on the pot for 45 minutes and already it feels routine. I'm starting to consider the next phase of our lives, with requests for trips to the potty every ten minutes or so...

9:33am - "I pee pee'd on the floor..." Sure enough, while trying to carry all of his big foam numbers at the same time, he seems to have lost track of his pee pee response, and has dampened the floor, his numbers, and his leg. Ah, well.

12:19pm - We're past brunch, Nana is here visiting, and peeing on the potty is already old hat. He barely even asks for the stickers anymore. "I peed," he said casually about five minutes ago, and pointed to a fuller-than-ever potty.

As Lisa points out, "of course, we're still waiting for the poop..."

Indeed, for months now every time he has to poop Max has moved at least ten feet away from us and announced "I'm gonna stand RIGHT HERE!" Which is followed by a hilarious red-faced performance as he works it out. He so far seems skeptical about doing that into the potty. Updates to follow.

Because I KNOW you want to know.

12:38pm - We're bored with peeing in the potty, so we decide to bust out the underwear. He's thrilled with all the kinds - Diego, Elmo, Where the Wild Things Are, and Tigger. He chooses Diego for his VERY FIRST UNDERWEAR.

As we put them on, we say "now, remember to keep listening to your body, and tell us if you need to pee pee, so we can take them off."

Max: "I don't WANT to take them off."

Us: "You don't have to unless you pee pee, but you don't want to pee pee in the underwear!"

Max: "Why?"

Us: "Because they won't hold it like a diaper. Just tell us and we'll go on the potty. Okay?"

Max: "Okay."

12:41pm - Max pees voluminously, soaking his Diego underpants, the couch, the floor and his book.

Us: "Buddy, you have to remember to tell us when you have to pee pee."

Max: "Why?"

Sigh.

1:05pm - Pees (a little) in the second pair of underpants. We clearly don't have the "tell us before you pee in the underpants" concept down yet.

1:06pm - Sitting on the potty, Max takes the big foam 2 from me. "I'm going to THROW this at you..." (does)

Lisa: "Maxie, why are you being so violent?"

Max: "Because that's what I do, is be violent."

Great. Four hours into potty training and it's already driven him psychotic. They TOLD us there were deep psychological issues involved, but did we listen to them? No... no we didn't.

4:46pm - I missed the big event. Lisa and I took turns taking "breaks" from Potty Household, and I was at the Barnes and Noble when Max declared "I'm going to stand RIGHT. HERE."

Lisa scooped him up, crying "ON THE POTTY!" and plunked him down on it, where he did a big solid business. Apparently it threw him a little, and he was a bit scared by the whole thing, but he did it! And now when I ask him "how was it to poop on the potty?" he says "GOOD. I got a PUSH TOY."

He did, indeed, collect the day's big bounty - the wood push-toy that spins little strings of colored wood balls around the top when you push it. He's wanted it at the Toy Space for weeks, and Lisa promised it to him when he had his first potty poop.

Underwear still confuses him - she put some on him and he peed right through it. Somehow the "sits where a diaper does but doesn't absorb BOO" concept isn't landing.

Anyway, barring further excitement or disaster, that will wrap up our P-Day coverage, with Numbers One and Two achieved in proper pottified fashion. Congrats to our little man.

Posted by rjt at August 27, 2006 08:40 AM