The Blog of a Potty Trainer: Day One

I'm taking a quick respite from all the other things I SHOULD be blogging about to chronicle our potty training adventures. After urging from our pediatrician and a nagging feeling of desperation that I may never have a spare moment to work one-on-one with Harrison until he's twelve after the baby gets here, I decided to give it a go. So here's how it went:

10:46 am After vowing to purchase big-boy pants "first thing" in the morning, I emerge from Target with a 7-pack of Elmo training pants. Harrison chose them and he is pleased.

11:51 am We arrive back at the house after running a few other errands. Training pants are put on. I decide to attire him in a t-shirt and underwear only so I have a better view of what's going on. We hang out in the bonus room (that was for you, Kent) watching a newly rented Sesame Street video, reading newly checked out books, and building with our blocks. I'm reticent to let him take a nap till "something" happens.

1:17 pm "Something" happens. I'd been trying to keep Harrison on or very close to me so I would be aware of new moisture, but I let him crawl into the tent we have set up and in less than a minute he pokes his head out and says, "Uh-oh....potty." I guess it was kind of fortunate because the puddle he was standing in was very easy to clean up on the water-resistant tent floor.

1:30 pm I put H-man down for a nap, in dry Elmos.

3:20 pm He wakes up in wet Elmos. Unhappy and possibly embarrassed. I tell him it's okay that he wet the bed, but he doesn't seem to believe me. We put on another pair of Elmos.

4:55 pm I'm keeping H-man pretty much on my lap, reading books and waiting. The phone rings, I let him wander for like, two minutes while I'm on the phone, and before I know it, he's in another puddle. This time we're down stairs, so it's nice to just clean up the wood floor.

5:16 pm I'm giving him lemonade and juice to drink to keep the fluids flowing. Some more flowed, this time while he was in the garage, and he came running in to tell me with it flowing down his leg. We have yet to get any of this fluid into a potty.

5:51 pm One more small wet mess. We're running out of Elmos. I'm getting a little frustrated. He doesn't seem to be concerned about telling me anthing until after the fact. When it's on my floor. I decide that we're done for the day and put him in a diaper.

6:19 pm We're just finishing dinner and Harrison grabs his diaper and says "Pooh" which is what he's taken to saying every time he wets his Elmos. I ask him if he's peeing and he says, "Yes," so I tell Dan to get him on the pot ASAP. This time something is different. I'm not sure he had peed at all in his diaper, or just saved some, but HE PEED IN THE TOILET! Yeah! Mom and Dad spaz out, H-man is proud, and Dora gummies are rewarded to the little man.

8:11 pm I return from tutoring to find both of my guys waiting for me on the front porch. While I'd been gone, Harrison had had ANOTHER successful go at the potty without doing any in his diaper first at all. He was so proud of himself.

And that's all I've got for today. I have no idea if any of this will carry over to tomorrow or if we'll have a lot of backsliding. Whatever it turns out to be, it was interesting and kind of fun. Wish us luck tomorrow. I've got to go wash all the Elmos.