Potty Training Bootcamp, Success!

This picture features Gideon in his new Big Boy Boxer Briefs with a green Skittle in his mouth. That’s right folks. No more diapers!

We spent last week in Potty Training Bootcamp. We basically used the Three Day Potty training method which involves a lot of nakedness and who does not love a little naked toddler running around the house?

Here is our experience with this method.

Overall, it worked great. I say worked because after 1 week, Gideon is potty trained. No more diapers (except at night) and he is now wearing real underwear!

You spend three days giving your child lots of water and juice to increase urination and then whisking them to the potty when they start to go. We also asked Gideon often if he had to go to the potty.

With a couple of exceptions, you are mostly homebound for three days. We used a combination of praise and Skitttles. The first day was very successful because both Ries and I were home to keep an eye on him. The second day, Gideon had two accidents and it happened both times because I turned my back for a second. They say you have to watch them like a hawk and you really do. You literally can do nothing but pay very close attention to your kid for three days. It was the worst thing about this method. I was exhausted by the end of the day, even after taking a nap with Gideon.

We started on Tuesday and by Friday, Gideon was telling us when he needed to go, holding it during errands out of the house, and waking dry from naps. I still need to ask him often if he has to go potty, just so he thinks about it. I heard that kids will often say no when they mean yes, but Gideon says yes when he does have to go.

Gideon is doing great. He does have an accident every once in awhile, but he goes whole days without an accident. He even did pretty well during church yesterday, though he was out of his normal environment. If you have been dreading potty training or are sick of diapers, I highly recommend this method.

Hallelujah, no more diapers!

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That’s Not a Pocket

Gideon has developed a decidedly boy habit.

He will walk around and shove his hands down the back of his pants and into his diaper. He modifies this occasionally and shoves his hands in the front of his diaper as well.

While doing this he says, “Hands in pockets.”

That is not your pocket and I do not want to see what you found in there.

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It’s Full, Please Change Receptacle

Today is Tuesday. Tuesday means Gideon and I head up to church. I go to a women’s Bible study and he goes to childcare for 3 hours. He loves playing with the other kids and is rarely sad to see me go. Today, he actually cried when I picked him up because he had to leave the slide behind.

That’s right. I now rank somewhere between a plastic slide and Goldfish. *sigh* Being a mother is thankless.

Gideon’s tell when his diaper is wet or dirty is to play with the velcro tabs. He does occasionally succeed in unhinging one side of his diaper but this mostly happens when he is sans pants.

Today, they took the kids for a walk outside during childcare. The ladies noticed that Gideon’s pants looked funny (he had on cotton shorts today). Suddenly, they saw little turds dropping from his diaper onto the ground! He had unhooked his diaper and was dispersing his poop outside.

Perhaps he was tired of having poop in his diaper. Perhaps he was marking his territory. Less likely is my other theory that he was leaving a trail to get back to the building.

Ries said that this reminds him of the scene in Shawshank Redemption where Andy is dropping rocks and gravel into the yard from his tunneling efforts.

On a side excrement note, Gideon peed in the potty today! It was a time for great rejoicing and then he demanded we get back to book reading.

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