Potty Training Allie

The night before - March 8/09
(We've decided to not go with the ladder style steps and snuggy combination for no reason other than I found a really great deal on a traditional potty chair.)

After checking my local Kijiji listing, I found a Safety First potty for a really reasonable price. So armed with the dream of being once again diaper free, I sweet talked my husband when he got home from work. Despite the fact that he was tired from working all day, he agreed (albeit reluctantly) to go to an obscure address on the other side of town to check out the chair for Allie.. After about an hour or so, he came home victorious!

Day 1
The introduction to the potty went really well. He understood the 'step stool' part of it right away, and that it's his. The friendly primary colours have alot to do with that, along with the kid sized handles on the sides. It's pretty perfect! Allie is really happy with it, and sits on it with the lid down - but wants nothing to do with the inside of it - other than to hide toys (which I'm trying to dissuade him of, without much luck)

Right now it's in the living room so that he can become used to it, and once I see that he's no longer intimidated by it I will move it to the bathroom. (That will also give me time to take care of the Entity that our laundry pile has become).

Day 2
Well. I had hoped for some kind of divine knowledge to come tricking down through the clouds to my little angel, and he would just KNOW how to do it... but no such luck. Last night at 11pm, had you peeked in my window, you'd have seen me mopping my floors because we had no less than 5 'accidents'...

On second thought, I don't think they can be called "accidents" because there was nothing accidental about them. It wasn't like 'oops, sorry mommy - missed the potty'... This was more like him taking his diaper off, and being half a room away from the potty and facing the wrong direction.

I'm planning on getting a doll that pees within the next day or two, so that I can show him what I want him to do... hopefully that will clarify the situation for him because there is only a limited window of opportunity to potty train early, and I don't want to miss it. Once it's missed essentially the child has to be RE-trained to not use the diaper.

Day 3
I can't believe that today is only day 3... it feels like longer.
Not through any fault of Allies, it's proving to be frustrating... and its a frustration that's unique to potty training... I had forgotten the flavour of this frustration. It's more of an exasperation maybe.

We are progressing however! Today he sat on the potty (which is still in the living room) with the lid up and his diaper on. He did it without thinking about it, and seemed to be quite perturbed when he realized where he was sitting. hah.

The reason Im so frustrated is that he stands on his potty, and climbs onto my big steamer trunk, shimmies down the other side, and gets into the kitchen - which until this point hasn't needed to be babyproofed, so isn't. At all.