Potty Training Boot Camp: Day 1
With Thomas at his father’s, the grocery shopping done, and Michael in the basement for back-up, Gloria and Daniel braved the first day of bare bottomed, kitchen confined, potty training boot camp.
We got off to a bit of a rough start as Gloria was NOT happy about going in just a shirt and leg warmers. There were serious tears and fussing and wailing about the fact that she had no diaper on. During breakfast, she sat on a towel in her booster seat an bemoaned the fact that her beloved diapers were upstairs and her bum was uncovered. Daniel, on the other hand, seemed thrilled to be able to visit his little friend so easily.
After breakfast, I didn’t hear another complaint from Gloria as she was too busy racing trains around the train table to notice her wardrobe was lacking. Michael had brought the train into the middle of the kitchen and built a simple, toddler friendly track around the edges. The suspension bridges, tunnels, and drawbridges are sitting in the playroom pouting about how they were replaced with boring old straight tracks.
Daniel did a great job of setting the example by sprinkling on the floor every 2 minutes so that I could put him on the potty and explain that he could get some M&M’s if he put pee pee in the potty. He wasn’t interested in it and protested a bit, but it helped get Gloria in the right frame of mind as she would come sit on the potty next to him. My personal favorite sprinkle was the one where he stood at the gate and peed on the carpet. The whole point of spending the day in the kitchen was to avoid this!
I made up some watered down Kool Aid to give them extra ammunition for practice and spent a good deal of time putting Daniel on the potty and cleaning up his sprinkles. Pretty soon, it was obvious to me that he had a full bladder but wasn’t sure how to do it in the potty. A time or two he would go over and look at the potty and then walk away and sprinkle a bit. We tried hanging out on the potties and reading for a while to no avail. I gave up on that and had them play some more and the sprinkling started again. So back to the potty Daniel went. I sat him on on it and tickled him until I thought for sure he would leak. On a whim I pressed on his tummy a little bit. Naturally this helped him to produce and we were able to celebrate and hand out M&M’s!
After the initial breakthrough, Gloria went over of her own accord and produced on a grand scale. After her first success, she would periodically go sit in the hopes that there would be more and thus more M&M’s. Several times before lunch she went on her own. Daniel on the other hand, just watered our tile. Not that I was really expecting him to get it at this age.
After lunch Gloria went another time without prompting! Then it was nap time and somehow I managed to convince her to sleep in panties and loose pants instead of a diaper and she woke up dry! Michael was getting ready to make a run to Sam’s Club and the little princess wanted to go. Now this was NOT in keeping with my plans and philosophy, but I gave her the chance by telling her she had to actually pee before she went. Surprise! Surprise! She did! Michael kept calling me to ask about things on my list while they were out. Each time the phone rang I was sure he would be calling to tell me they were changing clothes or something, but apparently he really needed help with my list.
When she got back, there were groceries to put away, dinner to make, and a big brother to welcome home. In all that no one thought to take her pants off and she had her first and only accident of the day . 
After that it was back to bare bum and sitting on towels! (And peeing in the potty!)
We shall see how day 2 goes!
January 19, 2010 9:35 am
By Marge/Mom/Grandma, January 19, 2010 @ 10:09 am
Thanks for letting us know how it went. Sounds like Gloria is going to do well at this point.
By Michael, January 19, 2010 @ 12:30 pm
In her defense, I think the reason she had an accident was because she was watching TV and therefore was distracted. I think she might have remembered to go in the potty had she still been in the kitchen with out the distraction of the TV.