A few days ago I put the kids on the potty for fun to watch TV, and Dom agreed to not wear a diaper (a big deal at the time). Later on that day we went to see my mom, where he told her, "Oma! I'm doing potty-training!" News to me, but okay!
The next day he woke up in the morning, so we went to get him and put him in underwear and he agreed he was done with diapers. Okay...? No accidents on day #1. However, he only peed on the potty once that whole day, and pooped a raisin by accident while he sat on the potty about 75% of the day. We have a pretty awesome reward system I set up, and I guess that worked for him! *details to follow*.
Day #2 (yesterday), he just got up and walked over to the potty, sat down, asked us to hold his hand, and peed... He had a bit of a sad/scared moment in the morning, but I think he just held it until it hurt, so we explained that to him. The rest of the day he marched around like he owned the place, knowing exactly what to do. He earned himself a new car and a dinosaur toy, and he couldn't have been more excited. He was hesitant to poop on the potty, but I could tell he had to. I scrounged up a diaper and put it on him to poop, and then sure enough, within a minute, the deed was done. That's fine with me. Poop takes longer and I was excited about his progress at that point already.
That brings us to today. He is completely independent with the potty. He has a 100% success rate all three days so far. He does not need reminders, he doesn't need encouragement, but he does LOVE the reward system! We had skipped quiet-time the last two days to be close to him, but decided he needed a break today. We put him in quiet time, and put the potty in his room. We anticipated him coming out of his room right away, or having an accident. Five minutes into quiet time he yells, "Mommy!!! I Pooped!" I go in there, and sure enough he had a big ole poop right on the potty! All by himself!!! He is so unbelievably proud of himself. It just so happened that that poop on the potty earned him another toy, so he got another dinosaur to play with during the rest of his quiet time.
Quiet time isn't over yet, so that is as up to date as it gets. He's doing amazing. I guess we really did just have to wait until he decided he was ready. What a different experience than last time we tried with him a couple months ago! I'm sure we will have good days and bad days, but it's been a very encouraging and not stressful experience so far. WHEW!!
Reward system - THE POTTY RACE
I set up a "potty race", so each pee the car gets to move 1 space, and each poo the car moves 2 spaces. When the car reaches the finish line, I have a special bag of toys he can choose from. For every pee or poo, he also gets a mini chocolate bar, which is inside the box this "race" is posted on. We introduced it a couple weeks before we tried potty training the first time, so he knew about it, and he was prepared.
Speaking of being prepared, I'm so glad we had everything ready to go when he decided he was ready (especially in the midst of this lockdown). We had potties, pull-ups, underwear, reward system, treats, special prizes, juice, etc. all ready to go.
There's one good thing that has come out of this isolation at home! Go Dom!
He got his second prize just before dinner yesterday, so he brought it to the table and we discovered it could help him eat his hot dog!
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