Potty Talk

William loves Roger. We've actually put them in the same bedroom because William loves to be with Roger and do whatever he is doing. Since we've potty-trained Roger, William has been obsessed with the toilet (well, I guess he was sort of obsessed with it before, the boys had to make sure to close the bathroom door because William would give his toys "baths" in the toilet). But he became obsessed with the proper use of toilets, often lifting up his shirt while standing next to the toilet.

While my mom had Mikey and Roger about 6 weeks ago, I decided to start potty-training William. Now, this is really something I do not do this early - I didn't have Mikey potty-trained until this last January. But William was very interested and I thought why not. I focused a lot on praise and individualized attention. William took it up. He has been doing awesome. Our biggest obstacle has been his speech. There are many words that sound like "poo", like how he says shoe for example. He gets really frustrated when he gets put on the toilet when he desires to have his shoes put on.

I've hesitated to say that he's potty-trained, knowing that it would be crazy during Thanksgiving with everyone here. And even though he did have a couple of accidents (but so did his brother and two cousins that are 3 years-old), he came right back with letting me know when he had to go potty.

Now, I did start this year out with three in diapers and am ending it with only one in diapers - and that one that is in diapers wasn't even with us at the beginning of the year! I do have to say that it has more to do with me than the abilities of my children. With each one I got better at knowing how to teach and deal with it - but I do still hate potty-training.

One problem that we have encountered is William's size. He needs physical help getting on the toilet - he definitely cannot stand on the ground and reach the toilet like his brothers. But also, he's already a 22 month old boy wearing 12 month old clothes. Even though his pants are high-waters on him, we can't move him up because he doesn't have a diaper that helps keep the pants up, which now I have to roll at the top to have them somewhat stay up.

He's so small that he's even fallen in the toilet while on the smaller seat

Because of the toilet-training, William has discovered a "magic word". If he wants my attention, he just says, "Poo-poo". If he wants to be let out of his room (like 20 times a night) he just says "poo-poo". I hate it because at what point do you call his bluff and end up cleaning up his mess later and possibly send him to revert backwards.

Another problem is that William will not wear underpants and pants. He will wear one or the other, but not both. So when we're at home, he's usually pantless in his underwear and when we're out, he is, as Todd calls it, "free-ballin" it. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it;)

Even though William has been doing awesome, he still does have accidents. I agree with my sister-in-law who says that it takes about a year for them to be potty-trained fully. Just the other day Roger made up his own potty song after using the toilet. It went:

I poo-pooed in the potty,

Not on the floor. (repeated 3 times)

Pretty clever.