Guess what we did today!

These adorable kids...



...wore their underwear to the child care center for the first time and stayed dry all day! 

They're still wearing pull-ups for naps, but even those are occasionally dry.  We're getting there!

Potty Training Progress

We started potty training at the end of the summer.  I was heading back to work, and although the kids' child care center and my mom would have been perfectly competent at getting potty habits started, I wanted to be the one to get the ball rolling, to teach the kids the process.  By the time I was back in my classroom, Michael was well on his way, but Sophie just wasn't there yet.  She'd sit and sit and sit and look back at her potty expecting pee or poop to magically be there, and I knew it would be a little while yet.

It was probably possible to have stayed diligent back then and to have gotten Michael peeing in the potty consistently, but with Sophie still firmly in diapers and the rotation of daytime caregivers (us, my mom, the center) starting up again, taking it easy for the time being just made more sense.  Michael started going on potty breaks at school and would go occasionally when we encouraged it at home, but we've all been pretty comfortable living in this transition stage where diapers and Pull-Ups are more than back-up.

We did a couple more potty training days over fall weekends, doing the same routine we tried in the summer (naked bottoms, potty timer, sticker rewards, salty snacks, water, lots of Elmo's Potty Time and Potty Time with Abby), but still no real luck with Soph.  However, we gave it a shot again this past weekend and it was like the light went on for our girl.  I was down in the basement sorting through my online Christmas shopping loot when Sophie told Mike she had to go, and she did!  Since then she's been wearing her Minnie Mouse undies most of the time at home with (knock, knock, knock) no accidents, keeps her Pull-Ups mostly dry the rest of the time--even for naps, and even did number two yesterday.

But guess what.  Michael isn't as into it anymore.  He still goes when we urge him to do so, but he doesn't really tell us when it's time.  He doesn't want to wear his Thomas undies (a couple of accidents early on really bummed him out), and he's not keeping his Pull-Ups as dry as I know he could. 

I'm hopeful that Sophie's progress will be a big turning point for us, that we'll get Michael back into the swing of things with Sophie at his side (literally).  We're still going to take it pretty easily, though.  The kids will still wear Pull-Ups for naps, bedtime, at the child care center, and when we go out of the house.  Perhaps pushing forward a little faster would work better, but I just don't feel the need to stress any of us out like that.  I have Michael and Sophie's third birthday in my mind as the point when I'll get frustrated.  For now, we're in the process, and hopefully by April the process will be complete.

Potty Training

Whoever started that "girls are easier to potty train than boys" business is a dang liar, I tell ya.  I give you exhibit A:

This is my attempt at positive reinforcement, little posters where Michael and Sophie stick stickers everytime they use the potty.  The picture was taken half-way through day four, and you'll notice that Sophie has four stickers, and Michael has ten.  (Keep in mind, though, that the first three for both kids were earned by little trickles making it into the potty after I scooped them up mid-accident to finish in the bathroom.) 

I'm not claiming that girls are harder, or that it has anything to do with gender, really.  I believe it's just a matter of individual readiness.  Teachers are supposed to believe that, though, aren't we?  Michael has just been more ready for this challenge, which I've known for a while.

We've been taking the Potty Training in Three Days or Less approach for the most part, and I've spent the last four days in the house with the kids naked from the waist down.  (Them, not me.  I've been fully clothed.)  They wear diapers for naps and bedtime, but the rest of the time they are in t-shirts and t-shirts only.

The first day I just took them to the potty every so often to get them used to the routine.  There were a lot of accidents, as is to be expected (and is sort of necessary), and a lot of protest.  We read books, sang the ABC's, counted to ten and back on our fingers, anything to keep them seated for a few minutes every time.  I was considering throwing in the pee-soaked towel near the end of the day, but then Michael yelled "Potty!" and he and I ran-ran-ran to the bathroom where he successfully did his business with no mess at all.  That gave me the push to go on. 

The next day and the day after I set an online timer (the same one I use for timed writings at school)for whatever amount of time I thought was appropriate--every 20 minutes in the beginning, every hour or so the next day.  The kids responded really well to that.  Michael even heard my phone ding with a text message and said, "Potty time!"  I went with it.  :)

My little boy has blown me away with his quick progress.  He has peed in the potty on the schedule, has self-initiated, and he shocked the crap out of me (so to speak) by doing #2 today as well.  He even earned his Thomas the Tank Engine undies with his tenth sticker.  We might do training pants when out of the house and at the child care center, but I'm trying to play it by ear.  I'm not kidding myself that we're beyond the initial phase, but based on the results with Michael, I'd say this three day potty training thing is legit. 

Sophie hasn't had any accidents today (day four) and had only a couple yesterday.  However, she has only really gone on the potty twice. What this means is she has become an expert at holding it, so much so that it worries me.  She holds out until nap or bedtime when she is in the comfort of a diaper.  At least she's mastered that part of it.  She was pretty bummed to be denied her Minnie Mouse undies when Michael donned Thomas, but I'm hoping to cash in on a little positive peer pressure!

 

Despite that advantage, I've found myself thinking something I haven't thought very much at all since the very early days with Michael and Sophie.  Potty training has brought it to mind once again: Parenting twins can be exponentially tougher than parenting one. 

True, I haven't parented one before, but picture this scene:

Sophie has been holding it since 7:30 this morning and it is now almost 1 PM.  We're in the bathroom for one last try before naps.  We sit down, me on the toilet and the kids on potty chairs that take up 40% of the bathroom floor space. I start to read "Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!" a Dr. Seuss book not meant for potty training but with amusingly perfect content like "I don't care how, just go, go, GO!" Maybe that's just funny to people who've been locked up with potty monsters for three or four days?

We get a couple of pages in and Michael starts to go.  We go through the whole celebration--dumping the pee, rinsing the bowl, flushing the toilet, washing hands--and I promise Michael that he can pick out a sticker after Sophie goes pee, all the while keeping an eye on Sophie knowing her dam is going to burst any second. 

We sit back down and resume our book. Not a page is turned before I notice Michael trying very hard...and he does it!  Amid the poop celebrations Sophie stands and protests, insisting that we dispose of of the poop immediately.  Really she was just pointing at it and screaming, but I understood. It was a bit smelly.

While simultaneously convincing her to sit down and try again and congratulating Michael on his achievement, I help my boy dump his poo, and rinse, and the whole shebang.  But Sophie still hasn't gone, despite her pained look, and Michael has done all he can in this little bathroom and is ready to escape.  Sophie requests a diaper and I urge her to try one more time while we finish the book. I manage to get Michael to sit in my lap, and just as Marvin K. is about to finally go, so does Sophie, and she's pissed!  She's pushing her t-shirt down trying to stop the flow, crying, and getting her hands and shirt all icky. 

I set Michael aside (he climbs the toilet and plays with the sink), crouch by Sophie, and smile and encourage her to keep going, that she's doing it, she's peeing in the potty!  But she doesn't want to go anymore, even though it's just a tiny splash in the bowl.  It isn't until she's washing her hands that she says, "I did it!" with a big proud smile. 

Imagine that scene with just Michael. 

Now just Sophie. 

I wouldn't wish for that life for the world, but man, that would be SO much easier!



I replaced the kids' art display with this little learning arrangement recently.  The numbers, letters, and shape flash cars all came from the dollar store!



The Third Summer

The first summer was an extension of my maternity leave, an ongoing cycle of eating, playing, and sleeping that now leaves me remembering that time primarily as a joyous hibernation.  I started this blog that summer to help me take it all in.

Last summer we had one-year-old walkers.  With official toddlers on our hands, we played outside more, became brave enough to vacation, and worked to transition out of breastfeeding and down to one nap. 

When they return to their child care center in late August, Michael and Sophie will likely go into a transitional (gulp) preschool classroom. Seriously, that made me take a deep breath.  As they continue to grow from toddlers to little kids, there are a couple changes that we will embark upon in the remaining eight weeks or so of this third summer: potty training and ditching the pacifiers. 

I know it's getting way past time to have tossed the paci's already (they're two--26 months old), but since the kids only use them for sleeping, it just hasn't seemed worth the trouble of upsetting bedtimes just to meet some expectation of what is "normal."  Still, I do have the goal of getting rid of those suckers (pun sort of intended) before late August.

As far as the potty issue, we have two matching potty seats that the kids have sat on a few times without diapers but that are mostly stacked, unstacked, and stood on when Micheal and Sophie come to the bathroom with me.  We also have a toilet seat with a little one on the inside on the real toilet.  Michael has sat happily on there as well, but Sophie is not a fan.  Throw in the collapsable step stools (love those) that we currently use for brusha-brusha time, and we're...almost prepared.  We need some training pants, eventually big-boy and big-girl undies that I plan to have Michael and Sophie pick out, and maybe a chart and stickers.  But even once we have all the stuff, are we all reeeeeally ready?

Based on this article from the Mayo Clinic, Michael and Sophie are pretty much there.  However, I have yet to have seen a dry diaper in the morning, and there have been a few poopy ones recently.  I feel like I should wait for that before I give this a real go.

I'm also not certain of my method.  Will we just go to training pants and set a timer for every thirty minutes?  I've heard one mom say calling the timer the "potty fairy" worked pretty well since then it's not just mommy saying it's time to put down the toys and sit on the potty...again.  Maybe we should do that 3-day naked weekend potty training thing?

I don't know.  I do want to start this summer since I'm home with the kids, and playing outside makes accidents less of a thing, but obviously I still have some homework to do.

If you have any advice, as always, feel free to share!