Tuesday, August 18, 2009

We ARE Potty Trained

I feel about Potty training Grantham the same way I feel about being pregnant. The whole family is in it together:) I was hoping we would have an easy time because Grantham is so verbal and he has been showing "signs" of being ready for about 2 years. God definitely had to be smirking in heaven. This has been the hardest stage so far. We tried every suggestion ANYONE made from M&Ms to going naked all day. To make a miserable story short, we had to turn to major disciplining and removal of all things fun (sometimes I felt more punished than Grantham seemed to be). But after a week we were able to return many of his toys and privileges; we even started a reward sticker chart. Two months later you would never guess the child had any problems potty training at all. He is totally self sufficient and has not had an accident in weeks (even at night). I am including some fun pictures of Grantham and some of the rewards he earned for going to the bathroom and days without any accidents. We invested quite a bit of money BUT are thrilled with the results!!!!

The first time we peed in the potty we went for a huge reward: build a bear- anything he wanted there!Washing our new puppy friendAnother reward- the bungy jumpers at the mall - this made me nervous at first but HEY when you are bribing it needs to be something the child wants;)He had so much fun; he used this three times for his reward. If you have never tried it and are nervous like me don't be. It was great fun and very safe.Total exhaustion after about 10 minutes of funGattitown (similar to Chucky cheese for those of you who don't have kids)- another one of those rides only a boy would love. Later we saw three preteens screaming on this ride. Grantham laughed and waved the whole time.Bowling with his best bud in MississippiAlready to be a big brother- look at that bossiness
John and I really enjoyed all the rewards don't get me wrong but with our next child we will start training a little earlier and not "wait until they are ready." A phrase many people used to tell us potty training is easy HAHA.

1 comment:

BeckyG said...

Hopefully it will encourage you for me to share - Braylon, our oldest, was right around 3 before he was even really interested. We had tried, don't get me wrong, but he had so many accidents that we resorted to pull-ups for our own comfort. We were starting to panic b/c we knew preschool wouldn't take him until he was completely trained. It happened fast once we felt the 'pressure' of doing it about 3 months before preschool was to start. THEN, when baby #2 came along, that kid was not even 2 years old when he announced that he was no longer a baby and we could go ahead and throw the diapers away. He would cry if you put one on him. I found him using the potty on his own one day right around his 2nd b-day. He could hardly get up there himself, but he was determined to show us he didn't need diapers. He was 100% potty trained right around age 2 and all the diapers were given away. Soooo, hopefully baby #2 will be that easy for you guys!