a day

Our views on potty training could be considered a bit lax by a lot of folks.  We decided that we would let the boys tell us when they were ready to get out of diapers with the idea that we would panic only if they were 4 years old and still in diapers.  Our thought was that if the boys were developmentally ready to get out of diapers then potty training would happen fast.  Otherwise we would be faced with an uphill battle and we constantly pick and choose those battles as the parents of twin boys.

So how are we doing?

I can officially declare that Jakob was potty trained in a single day!!!  This little dude has impressed me so much this week.  Jakob, for some reason, asked to wear underwear on Sunday afternoon.  Our motto “ask and you shall receive” went into full effect.  Because one boy asked the question we decided to go ahead and put both boys in underwear.  We then proceeded to clean up accidents for the next 3 hours.  Sigh.  But eventually both boys peed in the potty and off we went for ice cream.  The following morning brought some resistance from Alex.  Jake on the other hand woke-up requesting underwear.  Both boys are still in pull-ups at night.  Our first full day of potty training came with one accident from Jakob and several accidents from Alex.  There were also some episodes of embarrassment from Alex so at the end of Day #1 when Alex requested a diaper we quickly obliged.  He just is not ready and we definitely don’t want potty training to become stressful for Alex.  Jakob on the other hand continued to pee all day with only the occasional reminder.  Day #2 brought no accidents from Jakob and Alex made the decision to stay in diapers.  Day #2 brought Jakob never needing to be reminded to use the bathroom.  WHAT?? He declared his need to pee independently on every occasion.  My favorite comment of the day came on the evening of Day #2 when I mentioned to Jakob and Alex that I had some friends coming over for dinner.  Jakob jumped off of the couch and declared, “Momma I need to go pee before your friends get here.”  SO PROUD!  So our only outstanding issue was pooping on the potty.  We were on Day #2 and Jakob still had not pooped on the potty.  Our little man typically poops everyday so we knew there might be some resistance.  That brings us to Day #3.  I told Kara in the morning that Jakob absolutely needed to poop today.  It guess it was mid-morning when Jakob started the poop dance.  Kara simply continued to encourage Jakob to go poop on the potty amidst the hesitation and resistance.  Kara sat down with Jakob and acknowledged some of his fears after a timid “Mommy I’m scared to poop” came from our sweet boy.   And then in an single instance and with the courage of a championship fighter, Jakob marched into the bathroom, he slammed shut the door and emerged a whooping two minutes later chanting “I POOPED. I POOPED. I POOPED.  WIPE MY BUTT.”  And there you have it folks.  We officially have one twin potty trained!

We will continue to give Alex some time to think through the process.  Perhaps we will try again in about a month.  We know he will get in his own time and on his own accord.  And he will probably be perfect at it from the get go.

Mary