in celebration of both my father and my father in law’s birthdays, today was day one of the triumverate’s introduction to toilet training.
last night i brought out the elmo knickers i had purchased while in the us. sela and lulu (and jasper) were very impressed to see elmo and i solemnly explained that tomorrow we would be wearing our knickers and bobs and they weren’t to get them messy. basically it was the same speech i gave young sebastian at 18 months.
except, oh right, with sebastian it worked.
i don’t remember the baby whisperer’s guide to toilet training too well, but i do remember that toilet training sebastian was easy. he was 18 months, pooping every night at 6.43, and so we started putting him on the toilet one night and gave him a sweetie when he did his poo. i can remember calling our relatives (it was easter) and we were so excited and told them we had the best news EVER and they said, "oh! you’re pregnant again!" and we replied, "No, we’re too broke for that, but even better, sebastian did a poopers in the toilet!"
today, same thing. i had the timer out, and although i was not around during the beginning of the morning (up late working on deadline), i know that the timer was set and every 15 minutes the kids were on the toilet.
except nothing was going in the toilet (or potty) except for the occasional foot.
by 10.30 we had already gone through six pairs of knickers and two bobs. one poo, five wees, and that’s not even counting the stuff on the floor.
why did we start toilet training? magnificent thinks they are ready and he tends to have a good eye for these things. but i have promised myself that by tomorrow if it doesn’t seem that they have caught on, i will stop. i think the book said that you have to give it two days at least. i just don’t want to drive myself crazy. i would rather spend five days training kids who are ready, then five weeks training kids who aren’t.
jasper is full of false advertising. he will walk up to you, and say in his best gravelly urgent voice,
wee wee.
if you don’t immediately respond, he will repeat weeweeweeweeweeweeweeweeweeweeweeweewee until you hustle him into the bathroom.
once there, the thrilled ginger boy he helps kick off his pants and plaintively requests, "book"
this is going so well, you think, but instead jasper stops his toilet training ways and uses the opportunity to fiddle with himself. he could sit on the toilet for hours and if i gave him his meals there, he would.
sela, is very earnest about using the toilet, she will tell me that "poopah in the toyet". but except for a few renegade wees, she is not following through on her lingo. but she is very happy to sit on the toilet and sing and read and basically do everything except bodily functions.
however, after emerging dry after her nap (during which they all wore nappies), i led carys to the toilet and by sheer coincidence, she did wees. oh i praised and praised and even better, took out the little packet of m&m’s i had in the bathroom. jasper and sela saw me hand their little sister one, and they took up the chorus
ooohhh, sweeties!
sare sweeties!
sweeties!
i tried to explain that sweeties were only handed out to those who made deposits in the porcelain, but the crew was less than compassionate.
by the end of the day the girls were wearing sebastian’s bobs, and no pants. they looked ridiculous, and very very cute. little butt cheeks hanging out of the bobs, that look of surprise when they feel the wees running down their leg.
ohh ohh, wee wee!
wee-wee will give it one more day. if by tomorrow it doesn’t look like they are making a connection, wee-wee will stop the training for a couple of months.
Reader interactions
6 Replies to “puddles and piles”
You brave, brave woman. This one gave me a smile. I love reading about their little personalities beginning to emerge.
good luck! crossing fingers (but not legs) that the trio will stop holding out (holding it?) and give you a wee surprise.
I for one will be follow-weeing this story closely….Wee have a little one close in age to yours…
Wee be checkin’ back in soon!
Hoping it works!
Good for you Tess! You are much braver than I. I have decided to wait until summer when we can practice outdoors for sanity’s sake – although I admit I did hustle the one lad to the loo when he pronounced poo-poo and the diaper was bare. But after sitting for 30 seconds and being informed in a wee voice “aww done”, I didn’t persevere. Good on you and all the best. It sounds like an excellent method to which I may appropriate come June!(We are moving soon to Courtenay, BC and disruption does not work in our favour!). I look forward to reading your successes!
You’re giving me flashbacks! Oh, the cuteness of 3 sitting in a row on their potty chairs, watching a potty video and singing along! (and not producing.) And oh, the horrors of multiple accidents a day! and having the next puddle occur while you’re still cleaning up the previous one…
The messes got so frustrating, we reverted from training pants to pull-ups, and didn’t give the “big kid undies” until they stayed clean for a whole day. The pull-ups may have prolonged the process, but it was much less stressful for parents, so we could be more positive in teaching the kids.
We didn’t start toilet teaching until our trio were 3 and a bit, and it was still a months-long process. I hope your crew take after Sebastian in this regard!
I must recommend getting many potty books and several videos from your local library or bookstore, if available. It’s a good way to keep reminding about the subject, without repeating yourself all day. We liked “Once Upon a Potty” in book and in video form, good for 2 year olds. It comes in both girl and boy versions. Also the Bear in the Big Blue House video “Potty time with Bear” which is more for 3 year olds.
We collected sticker rewards, posted on pages near the potties. It was helpful to have different stickers every few days, to keep up the interest and motivation factor. Eventually we gave small toy rewards for pooping in the potty, because that was a big difficulty for each child. (Dollar store plastic animals, small cars, dollar store jewellery etc. were effective. And cheaper than all those pull-ups!)
If you can identify who is the most interested and “ready”, concentrate on him or her and let the others learn by watching. They might surprise you!
Sorry for the long post, and unsolicted advice. Hope some of it is helpful.
Heartfelt best wishes to the terrific trio, and to you and MC as you embark on this new stage in the journey!
I have potty trained many children. Many foster siblings when I was a teen and my own 4 kids.
I had heard that girls were easier. Not so in my experience. My daughter for one, was not done until she was a few months shy of her 3rd birthday. She took the longest of all my kids. My boys were all done long before 30 months of age.
You are wise to wait. You will only do more damage than good if you push it. I agree that summer is the best time, if you have your own yard or something and they can run around nude 24/7, it works really well. I have a feeling, being in Hong Kong, you do not have a yard! LOL
One tip and one question:
I found that cloth diapers worked well because they are much more uncomfy when soiled/wet.
What is a “bob”??? Undies?? I am also from Canada but do not recall this term. LOL