Stereotypical Mommy Blog Post on Potty Training

If you don't like to read about toilets, poop, or gummy worms any sort of excrement, skip this post. I mean it; you have been warned.

*Moving on*

For the past couple of weeks in our house we have been maintaining an open dialogue about bowel movements and the location of our subsequent relief. Well, I should clarify that by saying Everett and I have been having these conversations. The most we've gotten out of Joel is a few non-committal grunts.

You see, for some reason it has been quite interesting to Everett that Joel and I use the toilet while he uses his diapers. Everett comments on this habitually, telling me several times a day that I poop in the toilet, Joel poops in the toilet, and he poops in his diaper.

"Do you want to poop on the toilet?" I would ask. "If you do, you can flush (a source of great amusement)."

"Nope." He'd casually reply and move on with his business. Apparently he just wanted to re-state the facts.

I was fine with this. He won't be three until November and to be honest, potty training has been the last thing on my mind.

But today was different. Today Everett found me in my room, and gently tapped my leg.

"Poop." He stated matter-of-factly, patting his bottom.

"Ok. Go get a diaper and I'll change it for you." I assumed he was making his usual request.

"Nope." He said, shaking his head and pointing to the bathroom. "Ehts (toilet)."

I displaced the little thrill that began to shimmy its way to my fingertips--we hadn't even started this process, and I didn't know if he even knew how to control his muscles enough to produce the bowel movement on command.

I sat him on the toilet and watched as he began to push slightly. Only urine came out. When he hopped off the toilet to examine the contents, he looked perplexed--he knew something had happened, but where was the poop? So, I took the time to explain the different functions and where they come from. But he was done and I sent him on his way.

Two minutes later, I felt another tap on my leg, and another confident request that something was going to happen this time.

Our second trip to the bathroom was rewarded by a small amount of exactly what Everett had been hoping for. He took great pleasure in putting an extra piece of toilet paper in the bowl (Ashley had to furnish a piece of her own as well) and flushing the contents. I was thrilled that he decided to do this all on his own and rewarded him with lots of praise. When Joel came home a few minutes later, Everett was rewarded with a handful of gummy worms. The pride emanated from his sticky smile, and all was well with the world.

I made sure to reinforce what happened, why, how, and the reason for his treat several times. But I know that we might not have another day like this--we are in no way close to getting Everett potty trained. We still have a long, complicated road ahead of us. However, I was extremely pleased that he seems to understand how everything functions, and that he likes to use the toilet now. I'm hoping we can have a few more of these moments over the next few weeks (with our newly-reserved candy stash) and then maybe, maybe jump into some sort of potty-training program. We'll just have to see. Does anyone have any book recommendations or other tips?