So. My almost 27-month (as of this Sunday!) old is finally daytime potty trained! His baby sister, Maggie-Jo, was born on May 15 and during that time Jack-Evan (who was 25 months old) went through a tremendous growth spurt.
You know, one of those growth spurts where aliens swoop down, take over our kids, and then a couple weeks later they emerge from their horrendous cocoon as Kid 2.0 – new and improved!
Well, that’s what happened. In one week’s time, Jack-Evan’s cognitive development skyrocketed – new words emerged, new understandings of the world around him fell into place, and new ideas popped into his head such as the one horrible one of “Hey! If mommy is nursing Maggie 10 feet away, I have the choice to DISOBEY”. But yeh, that’s a total other blog post altogether.
Pottying in the “big potty” also clicked completely. It happened so suddenly I didn’t even expect it. One morning I was changing 2 sets of poopey diapers, and the next morning I was singing “We did it!” ala Dora-the-Explorer style along with Jack as he sat bright eyed and bushy tailed on the toilet. Ok, maybe not bushy tailed… more like mushy tailed. Or something. Anywho, you get my drift.
And we were done.
I can’t describe how incredibly awesome it feels to have my toddler out of diapers! (I can’t describe how incredibly awesome it SMELLS either). 
I could be really big headed (big tailed?) and get all rambly about how I went into combat mode to “train my child to potty in 1 day flat” or something really cheesy like that, but I can’t. It would be a lie. But I will say the method we used made this so incredibly easy that (for lack of any other experience on my part) I will definitely be doing the same thing with Maggie-Jo. Probably earlier.
The secret? We made pottying a non-chalant part of our every day life.
Almost every time we went to the bathroom, Jack-Evan was pretty much with us (although those of you with kids know that happens naturally anyway!). We would then talk about pottying, using the same words we used while diapering Jack. From the time he could walk (around 15 months) we also let him look at everything (and I mean e.v.e.r.y.t.h.a.n.g.), explore, and even flush the potty for us. We weren’t shy a bit. The only thing we didn’t let him do was drink it… well, except for that one time when my back was turned for 2.8 seconds (no no, just kidding).
We made it interesting, we made it fun, and we made it a part of life.
Oh and here’s the kicker – we had no deadline. We didn’t read the latest, greatest potty training manuals and we didn’t buy “I can potty now!” picture books. We also didn’t push, cajole, force, or hang him kicking & screaming over a big porcelain bowl. We just made it a part of life.
We encouraged, we cheered, we sang Dora songs, we laughed, we danced… all right there in front of the modern day commode. (Doesn’t our home sound so fun??)
We made eliminating in the proper place a part of life.
We figured that when he was ready it would click.
And it did.
I must confess one tiny slip up though. Back in February, with looming thoughts of double diaper duty hovering over my head (and very pregnant belly), I suckered myself into thinking that I could speed up the potty training. I’ve never read any books on the subject, but I had seen other bloggers talk about how they kept a child’s potty seat out and sat their toddler on there every 15-30 minutes for a couple days at a time. So I thought I would give it a try. Well, Jack never did care for the baby potty so I bypassed that and just hooked the child’s seat on the big toilet. He was excited about it for the first day, although the every 30 minute thing wore me out (as well as my handy microwave timer). By the morning of the second day though he was showing signs of wear. I could tell he understood the concept of pottying…. but “forced” potty sitting? He hated it. Hated, hated, hated it. So he rebelled. And screamed. And began running from me every time he heard the ominous beep beep of the timer. So by the end of day 2 I went back to my gut instinct…and back to diapers, for the time being. If there is one thing I definitely know, it’s that a frustrated child + a frustrated mommy do not a good pottier make. At least he had that one sad experience behind us though.
From then on, we continued as normal, making pottying an everyday part of life only now we would casually offer to take him to potty – especially if he was doing his “thinking real hard” (ifyaknowwhatImean) face! Sometimes he would, sometimes he wouldn’t. No big deal. It worked great.
Then came THE morning. The morning that all moms in America wait expectantly for.
Jack was standing by the coffee table, thinking really hard and I asked (as usual) if he would like to use the potty. I didn’t expect anything more than his usual head shake and “no” type of grunt.
But this time was different. It was as if a light clicked on inside! H immediately took off full speed down the hall as I followed him (at full speed) down the hall with a nursing week old baby still dangling from my..uh.. yeh. (Poor Maggie.)
I popped him on his seat, he did his thing, and we both spent the next 10 minutes cheering, dancing, and singing “We DID IT!!” just like Dora and Boots. That was us. Mommy and Jack. We did it.
And he’s been good to go ever since.
So. Is there a method to this “Make it a part of life” madness? I think not. It just happened to work beautifully for us.
Your mileage may vary.
