potty talk

I thought it was time for a potty update.  Not the most entertaining, but one of those things I want documented.  Eli has done well with #1.  Apparently he is good at holding it and so while he doesn’t tell us very often that he needs to go, he has had almost no accidents with #1.  #2 is a whole other story.  He would not go in the potty.  We weren’t sure how to go about helping him get there.  As you might have read several post back, we offered a poo poo party, complete with cake and a couple of guest and that was great and all, but not what did the trick. Really, he didn’t go #2 to get the party, I caught him in the act and rushed to the potty where he kind of finished, but how do you explain that to a 3 year old.  So, we went on with the party and hoped it would encourage him to continue.  No such luck.  A few days ago I had had enough.  It was becoming clear that he wasn’t really having accidents, he knew what he was doing.  So, I dropped Lucy off with Nana and we set off to let him pick out his own potty to poo poo in and I explain that if he choose to go in his pants he would get a spank.  We made a big deal, I let him pick the potty with no influence from me.  Luckily he picked a cheap one.  It’s a cute frog.  Funny story: On the way to look at potty chairs for him I was really talking it up.  He was asking what kind of pottys the store would have and I said I didn’t know and that we would find out.  He then said “Will they have orange ones with a telephone on the back? ……….They will………I want an orange one with a telephone on the back, okay?”  I told him we would look and see what we could find.  What in the world!?!   Anyway, so we get one and then we head to Mardel to find a star chart and star stickers for our reward system.  He gets a star each time he successfully goes #2 in the potty and after 5 stars he gets a special prize.  Yesterday he actually went on his new potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He was so excited and a little confused, he thought he would get the prize right then.  I explain that he has to do this 4 more times to get 5 stars and then he will get his prize.  He was so motivated to get his prize that he decided he would go again so he could get another star.  I figured it was good practice and didn’t stop him from trying.  Would you believe he actually went AGAIN.  Very little, but enough to count for another star 🙂  So by now you are wondering why you have read this far to hear about my sons potty training and this is all probably tmi, but again, this is kind of my scrapbook of our life, so thanks for hanging in there through these types of post.  By the end of the day Eli had earned 3 of the 5 stars he needs to get his prize.  It was a very encouraging day in the potty training chapter of our lives.  Below is a picture of him after he earned his first star.