Potty Time

Potty training is in full swing in the Clark household. We introduced Gavin to the potty over a year ago, when he was about 18 months old. Since then, he's had fun sitting on the potty (fully clothed), but has had little to no interest in actually using it. A couple months ago, we figured it was time to get more serious. Really, we probably could have gotten more serious about it sooner, but it felt like we were in crisis mode for a good portion of the year - potty training seemed to be a distant need. "Let's just survive" took precedence over much else.

So, our big break through came around Thanksgiving. I had been toying with ideas for potty rewards. We started with M&Ms. And then added a very cool foam Christmas tree with ornament stickers. Every time Gavin's goes "number 2", he gets to add an ornament to the tree (which is decorating our bathroom). He really likes the reward of picking out his favorite sticker and placing it anywhere he wants on the tree. It is full of stickers! We're still working on "number 1", which seems to be more difficult. And we've made the transition from diapers to pull ups. We tried just underwear a few times, but accidents ensued, so we'll stick with pull ups for now.

Up until this week, going to the potty was quite the drawn out process. We started reading Thomas books to Gavin initially when he started using the potty. So, the books became an expectation. Not that we don't like reading books to Gavin - it's one of our favorite things - but a whole long book each and every time he would sit down to use the potty got to be quite the long process. This week, we're working on speeding things up - get in, sit down, do your business, and move on. And save the books for the legitimate longer potty needs (such a boy!).

This seems like such a big milestone. A true transition from baby/toddler to big boy. Bittersweet, as so many things are. I love to see him grow and learn and say hilarious things. But I also miss the phases that he transitions through. Maybe I'm more sentimental than most because we've had a first hand experience that has taught us to appreciate every minute we have with our children. None of those minutes are mundane - they can be gone forever in an instant. So, while I'm happy on one hand to dump the diapers, it still makes me a little sad. Will I ever change another of my child's diapers again? I know I'm certainly not in charge of what the future holds, so I guess we'll "let go and let God".

I am quite proud of Gavin. He may have taken longer than some kids his age to get to this point in his potty habits, but I'm still very proud. We'll keep working at it, expecting the set backs along the way, and soon we'll retire the Huggies!

I have some potty videos of Gavin reading his books (he can recite pretty much the whole book), but I'll spare him the embarrassment of putting them on the blog. They'll be fun to look back on years from now!