Potty Training ... Joys and Woes

Well, it was about 6 weeks ago now that we began a little adventure known as potty training. We started the last week in January. Bright and early, Matthew received a present on "day 1" - a little plastic doll wearing big-boy underwear! (Every kid's dream, right?) Well, with the gift came a job for Matthew. His assignment: to potty train our new plastic friend, who we named Danny. Matthew had to take Danny to the potty often, and when Danny got it right, we got to put stickers up on the potty chart. When Danny had an accident, Matthew had to help clean it up. The best part was hearing Matthew coaching and correcting Danny, cheering when he went in the potty and scolding when Danny had an accident. In the weeks prior to this we had the little potty sitting out and had begun talking about how big boys use the potty, not diapers. By the end of the day, Danny had quite a few stickers on the chart and Matthew was clearly catching on to the concept of using the potty.
After a full day of "training" Danny, it was Matthew's turn. Matthew has been using the potty ever since then, and is really excited every time he goes in the potty. Overall, I'm really happy about his willingness and exceitement about going on the potty. He has no fear of doing either function on the potty. In fact, he is most excited about going #2 because then my little train-obsessed cutie gets to flush his "Poo-poo Train" down the "tunnel." (Sorry, if that's a little too gross to say on a blog - but the creative imagery has really helped him get excited about it, and that makes me happy!)

Matthew has had a few days completely free of accidents, he stays dry for nap and even on trips to stores and long car rides (...all this has been some of the "joys"). But (now for the "woes"...) the frustrating part of it all for me is that at this point the burden is still entirely on me to get him on the potty. As happy he is after he goes on the potty, he has not progressed at all in telling me when he needs to go. I'm pretty sure that he recognizes his body's signals, so he either doesn't have much warning time OR he's just being stubborn about it. Either way, just this week, I decided that I need a break from potty training!! :) I put him on at key times of the day, but I'm taking a break from asking him constantly, worrying about if he might have an accident, and scrubbing/soaking soiled clothes. Hopefully, he will begin telling me when he needs to go at some point, and we'll go back to the cotton training pants ("big-boy underwear"). At this point he is quite familiar and comfortable with going on the potty, so I gues that is something to cheer about (hooray!) despite the lack of progress in communicating about it.

[For anyone who is interested, here is further explanation on how I used the doll to introduce the concept: I got the idea from a "Potty-Training Boot Camp" session that I attended at my local library almost a year ago. The speaker, Teri Crane, was giving parents strategies to teach and motivate their kids to go on the potty. Her book is called, "Potty Train your Child in Just One Day," and she had many helpful ideas. However, I don't have the book and I didn't really do a "potty party" as she suggests, but the doll idea was helpful for teaching Matthew the concept. As for the doll, I did NOT buy one of those ridiculously expensive anatomically-correct peeing dolls. I paid $7 at Babies R Us for a plain plastic baby doll. I cut the "underwear" out of some fabric I bought at Walmart and fastened them with tape. I used lemon juice in an old purell bottle to make Danny go #1 and baby food prunes for #2. I would just distract Matthew with something and then go put soiled "underwear" on Danny. Throughout the day, Matthew had to constantly check Danny to see if he was either "wet" or "dry." I usually held Danny on the potty, kept the evidence hid, and Matthew totally believed that Danny was going on the potty. He thought it was great!]