Thursday, December 30, 2010

Potty training

In mid-December, Ashton started to show some interest in bodily functions. This child is an absolute ham. He cracks me up. We were at my parents' and we were going out somewhere. My mom said, "I'm just going to go to the bathroom first", which prompted Ashton to jump up from his toys and chase after her while yelling "PEE!! PEEEEE". He hung around outside the closed door to the bathroom the whole time she was in there while making "psssssssssssssssss" noises.
Prior to this, I hadn't thought a lot about potty training because he didn't seem to be ready. Also, he just turned two in November. I was waiting for signs of readiness and I got them.
A couple days after he chased my mom to the bathroom, we went to a birthday party for a friends' daughter. When we go to anyone else's house, Ashton tends to go exploring so I spend a lot of time keeping him out of trouble. He kept running down the hall and stopping dead in his tracks at the bathroom door, pointing at the toilet and exclaiming, "PEE!". Later, he found a stool that he decided to sit on. The stool actually converts in to a potty, which is cleaned out and no longer in use as my friends' daughter is older. When he made the discovery that the stool lifts up to reveal a hole, he was totally exstatic and sat on the hole while making pee noises and saying "PEE! PEE!".
Then a few days later, Jesse was giving him a bath. Ashton expressed the need to poop and so Jesse had to do some quick thinking and pop Ashton on the toilet. He went on the toilet, although was a little freaked out about it...but yay!
A few days before Christmas, Mom and I went for some last minute shopping while Jesse and the kids hung out at my parents'. I purchased a potty for Ashton at the consignment store that had all the bells and whistles. It speaks two languages, has a sensor that turns red when the child pees in it, has a flusher and a fake toilet paper roll (both sing songs and praise the child). At first I thought that the bells and whistles might be a distractant but as Ashton is often cautious about things, I opted for it. After playing with said potty at the checkout counter with mom, the saleslady and the customer behind us, we left and trotted down the street with potty in hand. I put it in my trunk before we continued to another store. As we closed the trunk and walked away, we could hear the muffled sounds of the potty singing praises from inside the trunk.
We put the potty in Camryn's room as we were going to wait until after Christmas to start the training. He accidentally stumbled upon it when we were in there and sat on it and said "Peepoo potty!". He figured out where the power button was. He made it speak French. He sat on it and danced. I was wondering if a talking one was such a good idea.
Yesterday, we moved it to the bathroom and put him on it. We have it turned off though and the back is against a wall so he can't turn it on. He hasn't peed on it yet but whenever he pees in his diaper, he yells "PEE!" and runs to the bathroom door and takes his pants off. We put him on the potty for a minute but we know he's just peed. He's super excited to pee in the potty though...he sits there for a few minutes at a time but nothing happens. He'll get it eventually.

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