Potty Training with Ryan

Well, we decided to start officially potty training with Ryan on April 2nd while I had an entire day devoted to being at home with honestly nothing else but cleaning to do. That entire week was fairly light in activities as well. I put him in his special Elmo underwear the first day that we had been showing him and talking about for awhile. (He loves ELMO) The first day Ryan had about 3-4 accidents, but I just took him to the potty after each one where he continued to go more and explained about not going tee tee in his big boy underwear. On Tuesday, we had MOPS, so I just remembered to take him before and after his class and had him in a diaper while we were out. By Wednesday he was in underwear full time and has been since then. (Other than changing him to a diaper while we were at Main Street Arts Festival the 19th as bathrooms were honestly just inconvenient)

We have been so proud at how quickly Ryan has caught on and how well he is doing with the change. He seems to love going in the potty especially now that we have showed him how to stand and go. (Oh the joys of being a boy I suppose!) Ryan is even staying dry at night and has only had 3 accidents overnight since Wednesday, April 4th. We chose to use the diapers that we had left over at night time until Friday, April 27th when Mike decided to give Ryan a shot in undies overnight since he was doing so well.  He always hates when we put him in a diaper and says "No baby diaper, Mommy. My underwear" (which honestly sounds more like Elmowear). He hasn't wet the bed yet and has stayed dry at night, but has had some tee tee in the morning in his underwear once or twice before we actually make a trip to the bathroom, especially if he starts the day with a temper tantrum over something... (there are a variety of things which will set him off at the drop of a hat).

Regarding going #2 in the potty, that took Ryan about a week and a half to finally understand and begin to understand the urge before needing to go. He went from being a regular every/every other day pooper in diapers to waiting 3-4 days to go during the first week of potty training. By the 3rd time that he needed to go #2 he had figured out how to go on the potty and now has gone each time and tells me before he needs to go which is a very big step!! Since week two we have not had a single poop accident in his underwear (that Mom is also thankful for!) and he has been going in the potty every day to every other day once again and occasionally twice a day. However, he does like to have books available for reading during poopy time which sometimes lengthens the time he would actually need to sit on the toilet to about 20-30 minutes... This can be frustrating, but we are trying to be supportive and when he is actually done we can usually use bribery or distraction to coerce him to leave the potty when he is actually all finished anyways. (aka books in the other room, playing upstairs, time at the park, a treat, etc.)

Mike has also been working with Ryan on doing more of potty time just on his own regarding bringing his step stool to the potty, pulling down his pants/underwear, etc. without help. We still monitor and watch because he will often times need help with something. However, earlier last week I was surprised for the first time to find him standing at his potty on the stool with his undies around his ankles and going all by himself while I had gone into the other room to finish some cleaning. It honestly surprised me, but I was so proud that he knew he needed to go and went and took care of business himself. It will be awhile before I feel comfortable just letting him go by himself whenever he needs to, but he has made significant progress in the last few weeks. He always wipes, flushes and washes his hands all by himself which is our routine, but we will assist with #2 wiping of course.

Additionally, rewards and treats were a huge deal starting out and getting Ryan pumped about potty training. He would receive an M&M or one of his Easter bunny treats (since we had so many around Easter) after going tee tee in the potty and not his underwear. Also, after one week of being dry and in his undies all day we rewarded Ryan with an ice cream party at Braums, then a week later after finally starting to go poop in the potty, he was rewarded with a slurpee party from 7-Eleven. He loves rewards and "parties" and being given praise for his accomplishments. However, at this point, we no longer reward going on the potty with an M&M or treat each time he goes. I explained to him after about two weeks (and LOTS of sugar...) that he was just going as necessary because he was a big boy and just like Mommy and Daddy he goes when he needs to and we don't always get rewards except for on special occasions. We still tell him "Good Job" or give him high fives & claps, and occasionally I will let him pick out a sticker, but in general it is just a part of our daily routine now. Carrying an extra pair of pants and undies has also become a normal routine for our outings and while we have fewer and fewer accidents, he is certainly not perfect, nor do we expect that.

All this potty talk may be more than some of you hoped to read about, but I have several friends starting off potty training with their 2 year old and they have been asking me questions, so I figured it would be easiest to just have our experiences listed out on the blog. Hope it has been helpful!