Joyful Vegan Family

Tuesday Toddler Update:

It’s potty training time!  I swore that when we returned from our trip that potty training boot camp would begin.  Today is day 3 and LP is doing great so far!  I’m going to give some details about what we are doing and how it is working.  If you have a toddler, this might be interesting to you.  If you don’t, you probably don’t care.  I don’t blame you.  If you asked me three years ago if I would ever be this obsessed with pee and poo I would have laughed.  I’m not laughing anymore more.  Well, technically I am, and so is the G-man.  But only when LP is asleep.  Because when you are talking about pee and poo with a kid who is potty training it is a serious matter.

Sunday came around and it was rainy outside and I still had a cold.  Since we were going to be around the house all day anyway, I decided it was time for potty boot camp* to begin.  LP had already pooped a few times in his diaper, so I figured we would be good to go for a while.  We showed him the big boy underwear, let him pick some out to wear, and then told him that, when he felt like he had to go pee or poo, to tell us.  Based on some advice from a friend, we continuously used the statement “Remember, tell mommy and daddy when you have to go pee or poo” instead of asking “do you have to go pee or poo?”  And when I say continuously, I mean continuously.  As in ever freakin’ 3 minutes.  As in a broken record.  As in by Monday morning he started saying “Mommy stop it!” ever time I said it.  Also, we (I) spent the whole day following him around staring at his crotch.  There was a method to this madness.  Based on the advice we (I) had gotten, our plan was to catch him in the act of going to the bathroom and the grab him up and whisk him over to the potty.  So I spent hour after hour “reminding” him and staring at him.

And then when he had to pee (after hours of my psycho pee-stalking him) he told me he had to pee, we went the potty and he peed.  Like it was no big thing.

Today was day 3.  For the most part LP is doing great.  9 times out of 10 he makes it to the potty on time, and today he hasn’t even been bothering to tell us.  Instead he just goes over and does his thing.  He has had a few accidents, mostly when he is in the middle of playing or just woke up.  However, every time he starts to have an accident, he tells us, and then he holds it in until we make it to the potty.

We have kept him in a diaper at night and during naps, figuring we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  However, his morning and nap diapers have been mostly dry, and he has been peeing right away when he gets up.  We also put him in a diaper when we went out for 20 minutes.  We are going to get some cloth pull-ups for such occasions.

We’ve been talking up the potty (yes you non-parents, that is a thing) for a while, so I think he is excited to finally get to use it.  I also think it helped that he has worn cloth diapers, which means he knows what “wet” feels like.  We’re still working on getting him to pay attention when he is playing so that he doesn’t have an accident, and to make sure he sits on the potty for long enough to finish.  We have had several sessions of peeing that took four tries before he was actually all done.  This is likely compounded by the fact that flushing is his favorite part, so the more he gets to do that, the more fun he has.

No matter how you look at it, he is doing a good job.  I’m just happy we waited as long as we did.  It means we don’t have pee and poo all over our house!  And the G-man is super excited that he hasn’t had to change a diaper (with anything in it) for a couple days.

Well, that’s the potty scoop.  Oh.  That sounded gross.  Yeah, I guess everything does around this topic.  Just gotta keep laughing . . . at least while the kids are asleep.

*The only people who refer to this as “boot camp” are me and the G-man.  As far as LP is concerned, he is learning to ride the “potty train” like a big boy.

Notes from the Year of Family

Vegan Goodness:
Today we ate . . .

• Breakfast: Green smoothies and rye bread toast with butter
• Lunch: The last of the Trader Joe’s bean soup with some crackers.
• LP and Dad munched on some pita chips for a snack.  Mom had some chocolate covered almonds
• Dinner: Beet and sweet potato pizza.  Sounds strange, but it was delicious.  Thanks Vegan Table!
• Mom just had to eat some chocolate chips while she, Dad and a busy baby IP watched the presidential debate.  It kept her from yelling at the TV too much.

Money Matters:
Want to save money?  Potty train a toddler and then you won’t go anywhere!  Seriously, today we had a HUGE outing – a 20 minute trip to the library and the bank.  That’s it.  No money spent