Now, I will give a disclaimer here. If you don't want to read about my kids successes in the bathroom, then do not read this post! Truth is Owen will probably be horrified later in life that I am writing of such things, but he and everyone else needs to know that this has been no easy walk in the park for our family. Plus, this blog serves as a baby book of sorts and I want major miles stones to be recorded.
Oh, potty training...you are not my favorite. Nope not one bit! Shortly after Owen turned two years old we made a big deal of buying underwear for him and a potty chair. Well, those underwear got wet A LOT and the potty chair sat empty for a good long while. Owen was just not ready at early two years old. Come end of summer we tried going potty upon waking up in the morning, at nap time, after naps, and before bed. We did this for a long while and he did great. Going #2 was always a different issue. He would often hide from us when he was doing his business, cry when we tried having him go on the potty, or just waited until he was alone in his room napping or after being put to bed. At Christmas time Joe and I got serious with training and Owen got the peeing part down packed in about a week and a half. We have not had many accidents since then and it's awesome. Going #2 has continued to be a problem and he flat out refused.
Last week at dinner Joe said to me "we are trying something new" I had no idea what he was referring to or what he meant. He told me he wanted to institute that 10 minutes before nap time and 10 minutes before bed he wanted to put Owen on the potty to try #2- just to develop a habit. His thought was even if he didn't go at that time we were trying and the habit was being formed, and if he did go then BONUS! For the last month or so Owen has become realllllly famous for pooping in his diaper at nap time or at bedtime, so we thought before nap and bed would be a good place to start. I thought Joe was crazy! I was fully prepared for a cry fest and huge tantrums from Owen. So, that night Joe did just what he wanted to institute. He brought Owen upstairs, asked him to pick out a book, Joe brought his book into the bathroom and told Owen what was going to go down. Joe sat in the bathroom and read and Owen sat on his potty and read too. No crying. No fighting. JUST POOPING! Yes, that's right the kid pooped in less than 10 minutes! YAY!!! We were all so happy! All three of us! Owen was beyond proud of himself. He got to pick a new prize (I bought cheap new toys months ago when we were having such issues and have hung on to them) and was beaming.
So, this whole week that has been our routine. Again, no crying or fighting with us about it. Just plain poop! I think something clicked magically in his brain. A lot of friends of mine who have boys have been super encouraging and have said this was the case for their boys. Turning three years old and a light bulb goes on. It seems this has been the case for Owen and I couldn't be happier or more proud of my boy. Who knew I would be so excited about this subject!?!?