Saturday, May 24, 2014

Pee-palooza: the Great Adventures of Potty Training

So we officially started Potty Bootcamp today, the boys recently turned 3 and finally started giving the signals that they were ready for the real deal.

Proud boys in their brand new underoos!



Our Bootcamp is fairly relaxed, but still organized enough to teach them this new skill in hopefully a little bit of fun in the mix. *They have been peeing on the potty occasionally for the last 6-9 months while still wearing diapers, so this is not a 0-60 situation*

What it looks like:

  • We are keeping the boys on our main floor (hardwood and tile for easy clean up)
  • We went straight to underwear only for awake hours (for naps and bedtime we will continue to use diapers)
  • We are not giving them anything extra to drink or strange to eat... they drink a lot on a regular basis, so have enough opportunities to go is just not an issue for us.
  • We are using a sticker chart to track their success - this doesn't earn them anything other than getting to stick a sticker on a colored piece of paper with their name on it - and a High Five, and lots of verbal praise.
  • For accidents we are trying to keep it positive, but acknowledge that this was an accident/mistake.  They are immediately taken to sit on the potty.  We use a rhetoric of 'We don't pee in our underwear, we want to keep them nice and dry, we pee in the potty, next time let mommy and daddy know you need to go so we can make it to the potty on time!'
  • We purposely picked a three day weekend so that this could be a joint venture between my husband and I and the kids.  We both need a lot of support from each other, and the ability to say 'your turn'.
So far the boys are doing ok.  Between 7am and 1pm there were a total of 3 puddle accidents - one was on carpet, one on hard wood and one on a chair.  The carpet was an accident on all our parts, we put a plastic tarp down in our office so that the boys could watch a show before lunch.  Becket wandered off and up to the desk for a closer view and had an accident in the 3 minutes I was out of the room.  Our chairs I have transformed into 'special' chairs.  A layer of plastic wrap and a thick towel meant that that accident was an easy clean up.  The accident on the floor, I quickly mopped up with a towel and then had my son clean with a Clorox wipe after he sat on the potty.  I think it is important that they participate in clean up but not in a way that makes them feel shame.

I doubt this is a perfect method, and seeing as we are just half a day in I can't say whether it is really working or not yet.  

For reference, this morning A had 7 successes and B had 6 successes.... like I said, our boys don't really need anything extra in their diet to have enough opportunities to succeed. 

high fives abound

If you are the praying kind, pray for us and the boys!  Pee-Palooza is ONNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

6 comments:

  1. Much luck and strength to you! It's tough training twins, can feel like chaos when there are double the possible accidents. Sounds like you're ready and have a great plan!

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  2. Good luck. We are on the potty train as well. I can't imagine double the fun.

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  3. Love all the successes so far! Can't wait til it's done.for all of your sake. Praying. Mom/Nana

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  4. Good luck! Aurora is terrified :-( I'm hoping that changes soon.

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  5. Good luck! We trained our boys last summer. The first couple weeks was tough, but smooth sailing after that. You guys can do this!
    *one tip, save those diapers. We put an open diaper on their car seat (because we had a trip we couldn't avoid during training.) The diaper absorbed the accident, and made for easy clean up.

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  6. Good luck! We're over potty training around here (day and night), for now...

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