Adventures in Potty Training

Can you hear us doing the happy dance? Why you ask?
Because Parker is finally potty-trained!!
Join the celebration at our house!!!!

Everyone told us he would do it when he was ready and boy were they right! We had tried everything we knew to convince him to go on the potty for almost a year and to no avail (special potty-chair, special books, special stickers, special pull-ups, special underwear - you get the picture). When we found out Wesley was on his way, Daddy joked that Parker was on the clock for potty-training because we wouldn't have two in diapers in our house. We got a glimmer of hope this summer when Parker finally started going potty on the toilet while we were on vacation at the beach. But you had to catch him at the right time - he wouldn't tell you when he needed to go. Also, he seemed to think that if he went once in the toilet during the day that was enough.... "Parker, do you need to go potty?" "No, Mommy I already did that today!!!!!"

The next glimmer of hope came from school. Observing all the other kids going potty convinced him to go while he was there. So he would stay dry all day at school and then come home and get busy playing and forget to go. As the date for Wesley's arrival approached and we still weren't making much progress at home, we backed off. We didn't want to potty-train only to go backwards right after Wesley's arrival.

But the day after Christmas he finally got it! It was like a switch went off inside Parker's head. He came running in from outside riding his Thomas bike to go potty in the toilet!!! We couldn't believe it! A few months back we had bought those cotton training pants and some CARS and Diego underwear so we started putting him in those and we promised that after a week with no accidents he could have Thomas the Train underwear. He earned those and we still have had no accidents. In fact we're getting to the point where we're ready to give up on pull-ups at night too.

Being in the world of the potty-trained toddler has certainly made for some fun detours when we're out running errands now. Parker will speak up and announce he needs a bathroom and then the hunt is on for Mommy and Daddy to find one quick! When we're driving, Parker thinks it's fun now to visit fast-food restaurants just to check out the bathrooms!