Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Self-Training

Matthew decided he wanted to start being toilet trained ... okay he didn't quite put it like that, he just decided he wanted to use the toilet. I have been putting off that task until the summer -warmer weather, less clothing time. I expected toilet training to be quite a challenge ... one, because I'm told boys are harder to train; and two, because Matthew drinks an excessive amount, and as many of you know, pees just as excessively (we have yet to figure out a way to have less pee at nap and nighttimes so that we aren't always changing his wet bed). But as he became more and more persistent on wanting to sit on the toilet I realized I better stop putting it off and give him a chance ... although I really wasn't planning on getting very serious about it. So I dragged out the potty much to his glee and excitement and away we went.

The first morning I spent some time reading to him while he sat on the potty, but once he figured out the feeling that meant he had to head for the toilet he was quite independent and did not want to be told to sit on the potty unless he knew he had to go. I used the same trick with him as I've done with the girls ... I let him streak around and it worked just fine. By the end of the day I had a trained boy :) Ya, ya, I know it's not all that easy.

The first day he would read or play while sitting on the potty, but by the end of the day he only wanted to sit on it when he had to do his job and not waste to much time while there.




















Except maybe when he's watching TV. Then it's okay to sit on the potty a bit longer ... why not? it's as good of a seat as any other.




















Since he's sitting there, might as well work the system ... in one end out the other :) Not like we have to worry about his system working




















I was truly amazed at how quickly Matthew caught on. I did three days of him streaking just to make sure before I put him in underwear (no pants). This was a new challenge, especially with only one arm, but he had no problem catching on to this either. We even got brave enough to try him in underwear while we went out Friday evening ... ya, not quite there yet - too many distractions, who wants to sit on a toilet when there's toys to be played with.

I should have wrote this blog post last week when I was just beaming with pride over my amazing quick boy ... but I knew that the next stage would come. As I expected we are now into the stage where the novelty has worn off. But he wanted to go on the toilet and he proved that he is quite ready for the concept ... so now he must stick to his decision to be a big boy. While we've had a few accidents, overall he is still doing well, even during outtings with lots of distractions.

Half of me looks forward to him being completely trained ... (or at least daytime trained, I don't expect night time for a long, long time with him) ... the other half is quite happy to keep him in diapers and pretend that my little boy isn't growing up. The small growing up stages are okay, but those big obvious "I'm getting big" steps just make me want to hold him and dream of ways to keep him little forever. But I promised myself that although the baby of the family, I wouldn't slow him down from growing up. It's a hard promise to keep, he's at such a wonderful stage where he's growing up, learning so much, expressing so much and at the same time he's still little enough to snuggle with and read to ... and just baby!! :)

4 comments:

Carmen said...

Yay Matthew! Keep up the good work!

HH said...

So steph, how does the streaking thing work for you? Mine would love to streak around, but they also couldn't care less where they pee...eeekk! Does it really work for you so well to let him streak? So he just goes sit on the potty when he has to wee or poo? Your so lucky its going so easy. Not so much here :(

amymom24 said...

Wow - way to get Steph & Matthew! Well done! Love the pictures:)

Steph said...

Streaking has worked for all my kids. It started with Marietta who would faithfully sit on the potty for ages, reading and entertaining herself but doing nothing in the potty. Pull up the underwear and let her run and not two minutes later she'd be wet. So we decided on streaking and that's how I did it with Rebecca and now Matthew and it's worked.

As long as Matthew is streaking he has no accidents. He just goes to the potty, does his thing and comes to me for his reward. I don't have to do anything, don't have to remind him, nothing, he does it all on his own.

Now ... put the underwear on and we're dealing with a different story. He can do it, he knows how to do it ... but he can also be lazy. If the potty is right there he will likely go to it, unless to engrossed in his playing. If the potty is too far away then it's unlikely he will. If he's outside ... not a chance. Bad time of year to be training when you have to dress him all up to send him outside ... course he's not gonna bother coming to pee. Thankfully we had a warm weekend which allowed him to go out without the extra clothing and even in just his underwear.

Right now I'm in training as much as Matthew ... I need to remember to remind him to go, to get him and put him on the potty. Putting him on the potty is getting a bit easier, but at first there was no way he was going to that thing unless he thought he had to go.

I prefer to let him just streak around and make it easy for me ... but we're on to week three and now there is no more streaking allowed ... it's time to learn to wear the underwear all the time. Getting a bit better with the pee thing ... not always so good with the other.

Lots of fun!!