Lilypie
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Friday, July 4, 2008

Potty Training Update: Let the Reprogramming Begin

I am very proud to say that, over the course of the past four days, Aaron has had only about 3 or 4 potty accidents. I am really feeling the Mommy Guilt right now because I realized that, during my potty training frustrations of the past couple weeks, I was losing my patience with him because I thought he was willfully not going in the toilet. Just because that's how he rolls with everything else. But then I realized, his little brain just needed to be reprogrammed! I mean, if I had been doing something as important as this the same exact way for the past three years, how can anyone expect me to suddenly do it differently in just a couple days time frame? So, over the past week or so, I have really been trying to keep my cool and be patient with him and it seems to be working because his accidents are getting fewer and far between. That and the fact that something seems to have clicked in his head as well because now it is a whole lot easier to even get him to do his business on the potty. This was the first big obstacle we had - just getting him to do anything on the toilet. However, now, he sees how happy it makes us, so he tries to at least do a little something most of the times we take him.

So, really, the only reason he has accidents anymore is if we don't take him often enough. He's not at the point yet where he will stop what he's doing and tell us he needs to go. We are still at the phase where we just have to take him every half hour or hour and then he makes sure he empties himself whenever we go. I'm not brave enough yet to take him out in public for long periods of time in big boy underpants, but he is managing to keep the Pull-up clean and dry when we're out and that's all that matters, right?

This is our new treat for going on the potty:


Birthday cake! With sprinkles! (The sprinkles are very important, you know.)

Soon, we are going to have to switch over to the whole surprise-at-the-end-of-the-day-if-you-keep-yourself-clean-and-dry strategy or else this kid is going to be eating birthday cake and M&M's all day long!

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