Potty Training!

(Beware: Lots of talk of poop and pee in this blog)


I finally got impatient enough to start potty training. I honestly wanted to wait until he showed more interest on his own, but when I got him to pee a few times on his own, I noticed how clever he is. He loved playing the potty flusher that made noise, so he'd sit down, pee a little, stop peeing, stand up to flush it, then sit back down and pee some more. He obviously had control over his bladder, so I figured he was ready enough. On the first day, I think he only had one pee accident. He didn't poop at all, though. On the second day (yesterday), I made sure he remembered that if he pooped, he'd get to go to the Chick Fil A playground. So that morning, he strained and got out one little drop of poop and was ready to go the playground. (I was excited enough to take pictures of him doing his first poop on the toilet.) I knew he had lots left in him so I took a change of clothes with us. He did pee in his pants at the playground, but it could have been worse, so I was relieved.


Of course, he wanted the camera from me to take his own pictures as he's sitting on the toilet doing his business. After that trip to Chick Fil A yesterday, I stopped offering fun trips as rewards. I stopped on the way home and grabbed a bag of toys from Dollar General that he picked out and and loved and told him he could have one everytime he pooped on the toilet. So, last night, after he was tucked into bed he decided he did have to go poop. I thought he was stalling, but he wasn't. He finally got it all out! He looked at it as I was wiping him and describing it. He was so proud. "Look Mom, it's like a big 1. It looks like a big 'I' too! I did a BIG poop!" He's hilarious.
So, this is the 3rd day of potty training. I let him help me throw away all the diapers yesterday so he could see we weren't going back. He was not happy about that. He hates underwear, he wants his diapers back badly. (I went and got them out when he wasn't looking because they were perfectly good diapers. LOL)

He got his big blue rubbery ball-thing after his first big poop last night (he got to sleep with it, it has a blinking light inside).He got a baseball bat and baseball for his poop from this morning. He has a couple books and some bottles of bubbles waiting for him that he doesn't know about for the next couple days.

So, at this point, he's only had 4 pee accidents in his pants since Monday. No poop accidents at all yet. We're doing great. I never have to catch him in the act and rush him to the toilet, not since the first day. He always tells me when he has to go. (Except for the few acccidents). And now he doesn't even care about the toilet noises--he never plays the sounds.

His porcupine balls are still among his favorite toys right now. He carries them around in his Cars tacklebox.

Joey is still enjoying taking pictures on his own.

He loves being on top of the kitchen table. He's such a monkey, climbing everywhere. Today, he asked me to take a picture of him squatting on the table.

At church one sunday, the teacher wrote a smiley face on his hand. Now he always wants us to draw one on him. Sometimes, he gets to the (washable) markers first and draws what he says are smiley faces all over his body. (He's having me draw them on his hands--palms and back--right now as I am trying to type.)

He took a picture of me when I first started updating the blog (that was hours and hours ago--it's an all day job sometimes).

Right now, he's writing and drawing. He said he's writing my name and then he wrote lines up and down and said, "A, C, K, E" which is apparently how you spell my name. Then he said he was drawing my other name and said, "H, I, J, K" so, maybe one is supposed to be Mommy and one is Gail, who knows. He's getting very creative and imaginative in his drawing and play. He's always talking about gorilla monkeys coming in his room scaring him (he calls them Gumbrella monkeys) and snakes talking to him, and all the funny things he writes and makes with playdough. He's so cute.

What's not so cute is his persistent waking up at night and asking for drinks and asking for me to stay and look at him sleep. He won't fall asleep with me standing there, but begs me to stay. Most nights I'm up about 2 hours in the middle of the night just standing over his bed and trying to slip away, or sitting beside him while he squeezes my hands. He claims to be scared, but he doesn't act scared, so I'm sure it's just an excuse. I blame Earl for spoiling him. :) I never stayed in his room till he fell asleep. Then one day Earl did it, and Joey expected me to, also and now he won't let Earl do it anymore, and insists it be me.

We still don't know where we're moving. Earl's in the field tonight. He's been trying to get ahold of the people that were supposed to call him back but no luck. So say some prayers for us that we'll get some answers soon and not have to wonder anymore. ;)