Potty Training Day 1...

For whatever reason, I brought up potty training, or the lack thereof, to Tami on Monday evening. She asked Kyle if he had Scooby underwear (which he does) and told him to bring them to daycare on Wednesday and they would try them out. Thinking back, it is pretty clear she did say, "Try it out." I guess I forgot about that until now. Anyway, I decided to go full on with this whole training thing. It has been a long time and I never got it right with the big boys.

Most know Caleb's training story...I tried and tried for ALMOST. TWO. YEARS. Yeah, he had to drop out of preschool because he wasn't trained at 3. At 4 (no, I'm not kidding) Pat had taken Caleb to Lowes (at least in the story I tell) and it was then and there that Caleb decided to try the potty for himself...he pulled his pants down right at the display toilet! No, nothing came out. Pat picked him up and whisked him away to the restroom.

I have memories of having enough and putting a gate up in the doorway between the dining room and kitchen to aid in training, but for the life of me I cannot remember if it was the tail end of Caleb's training or if I actually attempted to train Andrew. I know it was in our 2nd built house but beyond that it is fuzzy. I cannot remember what time of the year it was. I just remember eating, playing, and even napping in the kitchen so that one of the boys could run around sans pants in hopes of a breakthrough. (I didn't want to clean up pee from my new carpet) Anyway, if that was Andrew, it is the only attempt I can remember making with him. It was a tough time for all of us. I moved out of our house and I remember Andrew going right into the bathroom and peeing at Kristin's. I was like, "Where am I and what just happened??" In my mind, he trained himself I still cannot remember it any other way. What a doll to take that on himself.

Kristin trained her kids in like a day each. The mere mention of peeing in the potty turns Kyle's stomach. I decided not to care about it for a few reasons...1. He is a boy and boys do most things later than girls. 2. I am just really busy. I know that is selfish, but it's really just a factual statement. I was hoping to count on Tami for that. 3. I have nobody to compete with. I was pregnant with my friends during my first two pregnancies and, truth be told, one cannot help but to compare their babies to others. I feel no need for it this time around. Heck, Kyle can be 14...

So back to the training decision. I really don't know what sparked me. Kyle has not shown readiness. He has not shown willingness. He loves to be read to but when I asked him if he'd like me to read him The Potty Book, his reply was a very sure NO! I cannot interest him with anything...except maybe M-n-Ms!

I wish I had a video camera out Tuesday morning when I put Kyle on the potty and started explaining how this whole process was going to work. It was my day off so I thought it was perfect. It took me at least 20 minutes (NO LIE) to put his little feet into two holes of underwear. Hello. We were fighting each other and to be honest he was winning. His face was purple from crying and screaming so hard but he would not let up. Keith came running in with shaving cream all over his face and even through all of it I could see the look of terror in his eyes as he accusingly shouted, "What are you doing to him??" That was when I lost my cool. I snapped, "I am sweating my ass off and I'm just trying to get the damn underwear over his feet!" In retrospect, Kyle was consistently yelling, "No, mommy, NO!" over and over again but seriously, what did he think I was doing to Kyle?

The boys had VBS and we did a bunch of running around and decided to go to Michigan's Adventure. I made a comment to Keith that maybe we jumped the gun because we are in no position to train with the schedules we have. The concerts start tonight and we are getting a sitter many of the nights. She is new to this whole thing anyway so what is she going to do? Probably go home and never come back!!

Kyle peed many times, with many changes of outfits that day. Full outfits. I guess when he pees, he pees. (shoes and socks included) I stayed home with the bog boys so I never had this social calendar to contend with. Every time we told Kyle to tell us when he had to pee, he'd say, "OTAY" or "OTAY, OTAY." Then he'd say, "I tell you when I go pee." ""No, Kyle, you have to tell us before you go pee." Sigh. That night we gave him fruit snacks for dribbling on the potty. We told him we'd give him another pack if he's poop. No luck. We put him in a diaper and went to bed.

I woke Kyle yesterday morning to ask him if he'd like to go potty and have breakfast. He mumbled, "I poop. I get fwoot nax." We'll get it through his head, won't we?