Jeremy - Potty Training Day 1

Poor little guy. He never knew what today would entail as he picked out his first Big Boy Underwear, or as Greg calls them, his BBU's. Last week I noticed that Jeremy was terrified to wear his BBU's. He cried "NO!" when I asked if he wanted to try on his Thomas the Tank Engine BBU's and then later on his Toy Story ones. So, I made it a point after each diaper change, to have him wear them for a few minutes. And oh, we made a BIG deal out of it. "WooHoo! Jeremy is wearing Big Boy Underwear!" Soon, he didn't want to take them off.

So far today, we've been through Woody, (twice) Rex, (the dinosaur from Toy Story) Thomas, James, (The red engine from Thomas) and Buzz Lightyear. My washing machine has been busy keeping up with the steady flow of BBU's and sweat pants. Thankfully I've had other laundry to do so it wasn't just his. I was so thankful for his nap time, which meant him wearing a diaper, and me catching up with laundry.

This is going exactly as I expected. The first day is all messes. Poor little things don't understand when you suddenly WANT them to do that somewhere other than their diapers. I do expect tomorrow to have a few successes, at least I'm hoping.

Oh, he's been so close to having some successes today! One time he had just stood up and the next thing I knew, he was drenched. We had just spent 10 minutes sitting on the potty! The older kids are more than happy to help out too and cheer him on. I'm thinking this is better than "baby Carrie" our doll that wets. The idea is to have her wet on her potty and then throw a party for her. When the child sees the wetness in the potty, they then start to understand what they should be doing, and they want all that party-ing for themselves! But, with older siblings to show him how it's done, well...it's all the better!

But, as I stated above, Jeremy didn't have a clue what today would hold and poor little guy was so tired by lunch time. (So was Mommy!) Thankfully for him, he's pretty much done 'training' today as I need to go to the chiro. I'll do another half day tomorrow since I have a dr. appt. in the afternoon. Then on Wednesday, we have AWANA in the evening, so another partial day of training. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are perfect all day training opportunities for us. And I am hoping he has the idea by then and is having mostly successes. I'll keep you posted...

Oh, and you should know I am not very good at being patient. The last 'accident' he had, I rushed him into the bathroom and was not very nice about it. :( I regretted my impatient tone the moment I heard myself use it and he teared up. I have prayed about it and resolved to do better. After all, he had no idea what today would hold and it's going to take time for him to understand. But, I know we'll get there! He's such a smart little guy, he just needs to get comfortable with the idea.