Potty Training

I feel like I'm spending much of my time in the bathroom these days. No, I'm not bringing back any TMI Thursday posts about bathroom stories from my younger days. This is about potty training three year old Luigi. I searched through my archives to see if I wrote about potty training my older boys. This blog is over 16 years old now, so of course I did! In December 2014, I shared my frustration that The Moose (then 3 and a half) continued to have accidents many days. It looked like we started earlier with Pedro Tulo who was still two when we went into full potty training mode with him (though he had some setbacks after Luigi was born).

What helped during potty training for them was that we and they had the support and encouragement of their preschool teachers. There may have even been some peer pressure from their classmates. Nearly as important is that we weren't the ones reminding the boys to use the bathroom (or cleaning up the accidents) from about 7:30-4:30 each weekday. 

So here's the story of Luigi. He's nearly three and a half and has been home with us for almost a year now. He's had no interest in using the toilet, but we haven't pushed him on it either, primarily since we don't (or didn't) have time to take him. During the week, I try to make sure that The Moose and Pedro Tulo are doing what they need to do for school all while making sure that Luigi is content and attempting to do my own job. There are certainly times when I just hand Luigi the iPad and let him watch Peppa Pig or whatever else he finds on YouTube. However, over Presidents Day weekend, which was only two weeks ago, but seems like months ago, we decided that it was time. We put Luigi in Sesame Street underwear and took him to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes or so. Initially, there were mixed results where some days went fine and others did not. There were definitely some accidents especially in the #2 variety. 

Just over two weeks later, I can share that he's doing pretty well. I don't think he's had an accident in 4 or 5 days now. Yes, I know that I'm totally jinxing things, and he'll have an accident immediately after this post is published. The problem is that he doesn't tell us when he needs to go. We just place him on the toilet and either he goes or doesn't. This repeats every 20-60 minutes or so. (We've learned that we need to take him more depending on how much he drinks. I know that this sounds obvious, but there's definitely a science to this.)

What's amazing is that I've completely blocked out potty training The Moose and Pedro Tulo. I have little recollection of this process with them at all! Meanwhile, I find that either Luigi is incapable of taking his pants off and going on the toilet himself or (more likely) he just lets us take care of this. This kid is so spoiled. He's also getting rewarded nicely, especially during the first few days, with M&Ms, Skittles, and even stuffed animals for successfully using the bathroom. 

Even though I've been with Luigi nearly 24/7 over the last 12 months, this has been additional bonding time and seemingly rare 1-on-1 time. He's really a really funny kid. For example, he'll intentionally press the wrong button on Busy Noisy School, probably his favorite book while sitting on the toilet, just for laughs.

With that written, I really hope that he can just walk to the bathroom and take care of business on his own soon.