Potty Post
Tina's Blog May 20th, 2006I'm sure some of you are waiting breathlessly for an update on how the James (TM) Method of training is going. We have successfully moved the potty to the bathroom ("Whew!" says I). Now we're stuck trying to figure out how to get the boy to wear underwear. Our newest idea is to try a bigger size to see if the underwear being easier to pull up/down will make the next step easier. I am seeing an improvement with him trying to dress/undress himself. And he was not happy when he was wearing a diaper and got it wet, yesterday. So, we're still in baby steps.
I have started giving Will a treat when he goes in the potty, and then another if he wipes himself (otherwise, he’d just run out and tell me he’d gone in the potty and it was treat time). The other day he was playing and stopped suddenly, saying “I go pee in the potty!” Then he came out of the bathroom yelling, “I get a treat! I wiped!” James asked him “Did you not go pee in the potty?” I think he was thinking Will thought he could just wipe, and get a treat. I had a worse thought. “Where DID you go pee Will?” I asked. “There!” he said, as he led us back to the bathroom, showing us the puddle on the floor—close, but not quite IN the potty. Needless to say, no treat was rewarded.
[...] I think we are starting to see a break through in the potty training. We’d been doing the James Method ™, and then “Took A Break” on vacation. This week Will would go just fine if he was wearing nothing, but if we put underwear on him, he’d just go. And I (being the forgetful Mother of a Baby that I am) was not good at remembering to have him go at set times, or found those set times happening when I was nursing. I had gotten a timer at IKEA to help me, and it broke. Anyway, today I informed Will he didn’t get “2 Treates” (his term for 2 M&M’s or a Treat) unless he kept his underwear dry and then peed on the potty (it used to be a treat for going in the potty and a treat for wiping). That was it. I didn’t try to remind him, I was just going to deal with the messins that resulted. The first time he had an accident, it was as in the past, he didn’t have “anymore pee” when he sat on the potty (so no treat). The second time, he stopped himself, and then went more on the potty. But, he was quite upset that he only got one treat. I reminded him he had to keep his underwear dry. Then he told me “I want underwear!” Once we got a new pair on him, he wanted another treat. Um, no. Anyway, after that we had FOUR times of him telling me he had to go potty, and then going while underwear was still dry!!! Who-hoo! AND, when I was feeding Alex and it happened, I expected that to be the time he didn’t make it in time, but he did, AND he was able to get the underwear off himself. (That, too, has been an Issue in the past.) So, my child is easily bribed with chocolate. [...]