We are officially a nappy (diaper) free house! Finally! After more than 5 years we have moved on from the babies and toddlers to the next stage in our parenting careers.
I am so excited for Toby. He is almost 4 so more than ready from an age point of view. But this last year or so we have simply not stayed somewhere long enough to train him. With moving house, home leave trips and visitors to here it has been a crazy 18 months but we finally took the plunge over Christmas.
And he did amazingly well - which is what everyone told me - boys take longer but once they decide to do it, they can get it pretty much straight away.
So how did we do it?
Well we talked to him for a long time before the holidays. Explaining our expectations and out right bribing him. He had new underpants, Cars 2 on DVD and the promise of a trip to a waterpark if he gave me the best Christmas present - a potty trained son.
We have tried training him a few times over the summer but he just wasn't interested.
And we didn't hang about this Christmas! First day of the holidays we took his nappy off him and off we went. Despite constant reminders 'to go potty' there were a few accidents. I tried to be much calmer this time around. I chased Charlotte around stressing out about accidents but I learnt my lesson the hard way and was way more chilled out this time.
But the novelty of being able to pee standing up and new pants to facilitate that, won him over and he was dry during the day within a couple of days. Number twos took a bit longer but I also heard that can happen.
Credit goes to his Daddy who was at home enough over the holidays to get him started. If you ask Daddy what he did over the Christmas holidays, he would have to say he spent most of it in the bathroom!
Toby must have consumed half of his body weight in M&Ms and chocolate marshmallows over the 3 weeks but hey what can I say? Our kids are easily persuaded by bribery and whatever works right?!
What we weren't expecting or prepared for was the 3am then 5am wake ups. From the first night Toby was dry at night and as soon as he got the hang of it during the day he started waking us up at night to help him go. Great news for him but a bit of a shock when you turn over in bed, half open your eyes and there is your 3 year old standing over you asking to go potty!
Thankfully it's more like 6:30am now which is a much more reasonable time!
We pretty much skipped the portable potty and went straight for toilet training but here you refer to the toilet as a potty.
So this is what our life has been about for the last few weeks. Conversations about going to the loo and Mr Poo-poo wanting to go back to poo-poo land to see his Mummy and Daddy - a genius little you tube video which really helped!!
I have discovered that they have bathrooms in hobby lobby and world market and have spent a considerable amount of time in or around public restrooms over the last few weeks. I also wasn't prepared for his fierce independence. He has seen his confident big sister use the public restroom on her own and of course he wanted to do the same. He refuses to use the ladies so he has instructed me to stay where I am whilst he heads into the gents on his own. I don't like it. I want to protect my kids for as long as possible but I cannot argue with my bold 3 year old. And so far so good. I am never far away and keep a close eye on the door but I applaud his strong will and his pride in his achievements.
And he comes out with a big smile on his face, declaring "I used the urinal Mummy!".
Of course part of it is the excitement of using a new restroom and a slight disappointment when they don't have a urinal! Every new place we have been he has been keen to check out the restrooms!!
Kids never cease to amaze you. Every single step we walk through life with them is a joy. The ups and the downs. The tantrums and the achievements. They are all a part of this wonderful journey together. And although I don't want to hang out in public restrooms for long, I so miss being needed.
I don't miss nappies and will happily donate the size 6 Huggies nappies and pull we have hanging around the house!
Woohoo to the next stage in the journey!
Oh and much fun was had at the waterpark this weekend... Thank you Toby!!
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