Week 3, Thursday - Transitions

Well, our Henry boy is doing great with his potty training.  Not so well at Aunt Amy's house, but he's really doing well at Grandma's and at home.  Just yesterday, Matt took him to gymnastics then out to run a few errands.  Henry held it the entire time they were out.  Matt brought the little potty with him, but for whatever reason, Henry didn't go until he got home.  He held it all the way to gymnastics, through the hour long class, during the stop to pick up the CSA and all the way home.  That's nearly 3 hours.  And he went both poop and pee as soon as Matt got him home and onto the potty.  What a big boy!  He's still having some trouble at Aunt Amy's house, but I suspect it's because he's just having too much fun to stop to go potty.  Disappointing, but he'll get it.

He's doing so well that I decided it was time to try the big toilet.  I ordered a ring for him to sit on and a stool so that he could climb up himself and both arrived yesterday.  He wasn't very interested at first but when I told him that it's what Mama does, he started saying, "Mama, mama" and got right up.  It took him a few minutes to get himself comfortable and situated on it but once he was, he was fine.  He went pee pee right away and then just sat for a few more minutes.  This morning, he went both poop and pee on it without any fuss.  Once we were all done, he was very interested in standing on his stool and peeping into the toilet at his... well, stool.  Ha!  Anyway, he flushed and waved bye bye to his poop, then picked up his stool to go climb other things.  He's such a big boy these days.  Below is a pic I snapped of him sitting on the toilet last night.  What a silly, big boy.

Week 3, Monday - Weekend recap and today's successes

Well, at the risk of jinxing ourselves, methinks our boy is pretty much potty trained.  Can I say that?  I don't know.  He hasn't had an accident at home in... I don't remember the last one.  Over a week at least.  He does get stuff on the floor from time to time but it's when he goes and jumps up too excitedly before he's completely done.  He had an accident at Grandma's last week on Thursday.  We have only tried him on the potty, never on the toilet.  And we haven't even begun to attempt to do anything with nap time or over night.  So can I say that he's potty trained?  I guess not.  But we're not using diapers anymore for anything other than naps and over night.  He's just doing so great.  We're still bare bottomed at home but will be doing training pants at Aunt Amy's and Grandma's going forward.  We still have the pull ups in case the training pants don't do the trick, but I'm hoping that we don't need them.

We also moved him into his big boy room this weekend.  We aren't done with the bed yet, but we have him on a mattress on the floor in the interim.  I expect to have the bed done by this weekend so we'll be able to make this kind of a step-by-step transition.  I guess for the over night thing, we'll end up switching him into some sort of over night diaper he can pull down so he can get up and go in the potty if he needs to?  I have zero idea how the over night thing happens.  Does it just kind of happen on its own?  No clue.

I guess the next thing for us to do is to work on getting him onto the actual toilet.  There's not a lot we can do to help keep him from having accidents at Grandma's or Aunt Amy's so I guess that part is up to them.  We'll just keep being consistent at home and when we're out.  And I guess the rest will just come?  No idea.  Honestly, I don't even know how to make the transition from the potty to the toilet.  We'll have to get a little step before we start that and I'm thinking maybe we'll just wait until after my family is here for the 4th of July.  In the mean time, we'll just keep encouraging him to tell us when he's ready.  Sweet boy.  He's been doing so incredibly great.  I'm so proud of him!

Day 13, am - Poopy in the potty!

That boy of ours has done it again!  We had a HUGE poopy in the potty today!  But better than that, HE told me that he had to do it.  I slept in this morning so I was home when he woke up.  I got immediately up and brought him down to sit on the potty while I got ready for work.  He was compliant but didn't go.  He sat there and watched the iPad sweetly with me, though.  So I didn't mind.  Eventually, I got him up and gave him a banana.  We're still doing bare bum at home, so he was just bopping around naked.  I had some paperwork to fill out for school next year, so he ate his banana and played with some choo-choos while I did that.  About 10 minutes after I'd gotten him off the potty, he grabbed at his penis and said the word he uses for potty.  I'm not sure yet what it is, whether it's pee pee or potty or what, but it's the same every time.  I'm going to have to listen better.  Anyway, I asked him if he had to go potty and he shook his head so we quickly but calmly went over to the potty and he sat down while I cued up Madeline Kahn singing with Grover on the iPad.  By the time I gave it to him, he'd already peed right in the potty like he was supposed to.  Good little boy.  :)  He sat there for a few more minutes while I went back to my paperwork but eventually put down the iPad and shook his head 'yes' when I asked if he was all done.  Proudly, we marched into the bathroom to flush the pee-pee down the big potty.

I went back to my paperwork, while Matt got up and got ready for him to go to gymnastics.  He was still running about naked because I wanted him to sit on the potty one last time before gymnastics and at least try, though, to be honest, that's been pretty futile these days.  Now that he can tell us when he needs to go, he does and if we ask him and he says no, that usually means he really doesn't need to go.  Anyway, I was sitting there, doing my paperwork when he shouted "doo-doo" at me.  I turned back to him and he grabbed his bum.  I asked if he had to go poopy and he said, "no."  I wasn't sure that he'd actually said doo-doo he was playing with his trains and it sounds an awful lot like choo-choo.  But again, after he said that he didn't have to go poopy, he grabbed at his bum.  Matt was standing there and said, "yeah, that's his poopy sign," so I asked him again if he had to go poo-poo and this time he shook his head yes and started toward the potty.  I grabbed the iPad and cued up Maya Angelou singing with Elmo and handed it off.  Very shortly after he sat down, he shouted out his "success" sound.  Again, I'm not sure what the actual word is that he exclaims but it's the same every time so I'll have to listen better and take note of it.  Maybe I can catch it on video.  That would be wonderful.  Anyway, after he shouted, I asked if he'd gone poopy and he shook his head yes.  I went over to check and he hadn't.  I told him he was crazy and that he hadn't gone yet, so he should keep sitting there until he went.  He looked legitimately surprised.  Ha!  He really did.  He even stood up and peeped through is legs, as if he didn't believe me.  Super cute.  :)  Once he saw that he hadn't in fact gone, he sat back down to give it another try.  We went through that same routine two more times before we had some success.  On the last time, I almost didn't even go look because I thought he was crying wolf.  But I did and sure enough, he'd gone.  A LOT.  HUGE.  We did a little dance and sang a little song but left him there a few more minutes after Daddy's experience from the day before.  I actually asked him if he was done and he shook his head no, so it wasn't hard to get him to stay.  After a few minutes, he put down the iPad and looked into the potty to see what he'd done.  Such a good boy.  Again, we marched proudly into the bathroom to dump and flush and shout "bye bye!"  So proud of that boy!

I feel like we've made HUGE strides this week.  I'm not really sure we need to do the whole "30 minute timer" thing anymore because he really seems to have gotten the gist of things.  I ordered some cloth training pants that should be arriving today so I think we'll try switching over to those for Aunt Amy's and Grandma's houses.  At home, I think we'll stick to the bare bum thing for a few more weeks yet.  The "3-day potty training" website I used actually says you're not supposed to use anything at all but loose pants for 3 solid months.  And I think he does better while he's bare; seems to have fewer accidents.  I do like that he's using training pants, though, so he understands pulling them up and down.  I'm just so very very thrilled at his progress.  I expect more accidents and we've not yet begun the whole sleeping thing, but I just feel like we've come so far in two weeks that I can hardly believe it.  I guess he really was ready.  Thank you so much for recommending we try, Aunt Amy!

Day 12, recap - Telling Aunt Amy!

I only heard a brief overview of yesterday's progress from Daddy and Aunt Amy.  Apparently, he pooped in the potty for daddy, but got excited and stood up before he was done so he also did a little bit on the floor.  He then proceeded to get upset about it.  Daddy was able to calm him down and then flushed it down the big potty with a hearty, "bye bye!"  So that was pretty good.  Really good, I mean.

Later, he peed in the potty for Aunt Amy after telling her that he had to go!  That was the biggest deal.  She didn't have him sitting on the potty or anything.  She had tried that but it didn't work, so she got him off.  But later, he pointed to it and told her he had to go, so she helped him get his diaper off and he peed as soon as he sat down!   Way to go Henry!

As I mentioned before, the whole "telling other people" thing is HUGE to me.  He's exhibiting bladder control and recognizing the urge to go.  I'm just so very proud of him.  :D

Day 11, recap - not much more to add

Henry boy wasn't awake much more than what I reported already yesterday.  He didn't go potty again before his nap at Aunt Amy's house and then slept until 5 pm!  Goodness!  I guess he did end up going potty at her house (which is awesome) after he was awake, though.

I forgot to take off his diaper when we got home and he for sure peed in it during dinner at some point.  The iPad was dead so I wasn't able to get him to stay put on the potty either before or after dinner and I was too tired to fight with him.  He was so sweet.  He just followed me around, talking talking talking.  I wish I knew what he was saying.  But he was very chatty.  But anyway, mommy didn't have any success at all yesterday.  I was very disappointed that I didn't get him to go before he went to bed, but I was just too tired to push it, the iPad was dead and the internet needed to be reset so I couldn't' get it on my phone either.  And I just didn't have the energy to fix that before I put him down.  Poor little guy.  He has to suffer through my laziness.  I'm hoping he does great today so I don't feel as guilty about last night.

Day 11, am - Home with Daddy

Daddy's update (via text message):

Daddy - "Good day so far, Mommy!  Two pee-pees and a poopy in the potty!!"
Mommy - "Way to go, Daddy!  Did he poop that time he told you he needed to?  Or later?"
Daddy - "Later, but he peed that time.  Not right away.  Had to sit for several minutes."

I don't know what the poop communication was, if he told Daddy that he needed to go or if it was just the luck of the timing but we're for sure making progress!  I'm hoping things go a little better at Amy's house today than they did last week.  He's had several successive days of actually telling us when he needs to go potty so I'm really really hoping that continues and carries over to other people's houses.  Even if it doesn't, the sooner he totally gets it with mommy and daddy, the sooner I think he'll get it with others.  I'm just so proud of him!!!

Day 10, recap - Downs and big ups!

We had some exciting success yesterday.  :)  After a relatively disappointing morning where he'd pooped in his diaper before I got him up then peed on the floor, we successfully peed in the potty once before leaving to meet Daddy, the Terlizzis and Grandma/Grandpa for a Father's Day lunch at the golf course.  Henry was a bit of a terror during lunch, being very clingy, not wanting to sit in his high chair, and throwing just about everything we'd give him.  We brought the potty with us, but he kept telling us he didn't have to go and when we put him on the potty after lunch, we found his diaper to be soaked.  :(  Not too surprising because there were lots of distractions and I can't really blame him for not wanting to be taken away from the excitement just to sit on the potty, but I was still pretty disappointed.

But then, after his nap, we took him to the play ground and the pool at the beginning of our community.  We played hard for about an hour on the playground.  We kicked and chased the big, blue ball and hit a tennis ball off a tee.  We ran and ran and rolled and jumped and slid and swung and did all sorts of fun playground things.  And right in the middle, Henry told us that he had to go potty.  Really.  So we set it up in the trunk and had him sit, only to find that he was being honest and really did have to go.  Hooray Henry!  I liked doing that because it showed that we could take a break from the fun for potty time but that we could continue having fun after.  Once he was good and sweaty and red-faced, we decided to cool down in the pool.  Daddy and Henry swam and played with the big, blue ball in the pool for about an hour when Henry got out and again told us that he had to go potty.  Sure enough, when we took off his swim diaper and put him on the potty in the trunk, he peed right away.  Hooray for bladder control!  Hooray for communication!  I'm so proud of this big boy!!

Maybe, just maybe, we really can have him potty trained by the time baby #2 comes in September!?  Trying not to get my hopes up that high but he's doing SO well!  He's still having accidents and he's not communicating well at Grandma's or Aunt Amy's but it was only day 10 and he's taking breaks from super fun time to go potty?  I think that's VERY encouraging.  :D

Day 9 - Mommy is THRILLED

I don't remember what happened yesterday and I apologize for missing a day of blogging but hopefully today's AMAZING update will make up for anything missed yesterday.  This morning, after getting up and doing our normal weekend thing (breakfast, potty, coffee, whatever), we went out to run some errands.  We put Henry into a pull-up and packed the potty into the back of the wagon (station wagon, that is.  We didn't take the Radio Flyer out on the town).  After being out for about an hour and a half, I asked Henry if he had to go potty, figuring that he'd be wet already and that he'd say no.  To my surprise, he said yes so we set up the potty in in the back of the wagon in the parking lot of Lowe's.  More to my surprise, when we pulled down our boy's pants, we found his diaper to be totally dry.  I was so happy!  Then, even to my further surprise, he peed as soon as he sat down on the potty.  A lot.  I have to think that he was exhibiting bladder control because he peed a ton as soon as he sat down.  And to reiterate, his diaper was dry.  Hooray Henry!

He did poop in his diaper before his nap, but I couldn't even be that disappointed because he did such a great job holding his pee.  We ended up going out to lunch while we were out and he didn't pee in his diaper at all.

Later, Matt took him over to Grandma and Grandpa's for about an hour and I guess Henry actually told him that he had to go pee.  And then peed as soon as he sat down. Then, I got to witness the miracle myself here at home after they got back because he did it again!  He actually told us that he had to go and then went as soon as he sat down!  I can't actually tell you what it is that he says when he has to go, but he has a word that he uses.  It's new enough that I don't remember what it is.  After a few more days, hopefully I will.  Anyway, I'm so so so proud of him right now that I can hardly express it.  We're still working on it, obviously, and we've still got a long way to go but I can see progress and that's what I'm most thrilled about.  I'm so proud of you, good, smart boy!!

Day 7, pm - Poo x 2?

That's right, folks!  You heard it here first: Henry boy pooped in the potty TWICE today!!  No, that is not an exaggeration or a Tale from the Crypt but an actual second doody into the potty.  I'm stunned, shocked, excited beyond belief!  Also, which is kind of even more exciting, I was folding laundry when Henry started to pee and I jumped up, saying, "no no no!" and he stopped.  I whisked him onto the potty and as soon as he sat down, he started going again.  Now, he didn't tell me that he needed to go, but he was able to stop when I asked him to.  And that seems like a big deal.  Yes, I had to clean some more pee up off the floor but it wasn't much and he ended up going a lot in the potty.

As far as our second poo goes, I had some hints that we might get there before bed time.  We were outside watching daddy mow the lawn (and jumping like a crazy man on the trampoline) when mommy decided it was time to come in and get a drink.  I picked him up and he tooted all over me.  It's not poop and he's a baby, but I have to tell you, it's not fun when anyone toots on you, grown-up, baby or otherwise.  Funny, yes, but fun? Not so much. Anyway, we sat on the potty while mommy got dinner ready and had a nice big cup of watery juice.  During dinner, he peed in his chair again (d'oh!) and then got really fidgety.  I thought, at first, it was because his chair was wet but he rocked to the side hard enough once to let a big toot fly.  I asked him if he was done eating and we got out to sit on the potty.  It hadn't been 30 minutes yet, but he'd already peed in his chair again and those toots had me thinking that there was going to be some number two action a-coming.  Sure enough, I heard a few more toots on the potty and when I came back down from running his bath, he'd gone both numbers one and two.  Way to go, big guy!!  Mommy is so proud of you!!!

Day 7, lunch time - Poo poo in the Potty! Poo poo in the potty!

Hooray!  After a number of disappointing set backs, Henry boy pooped in the potty!  As I mentioned before, I gave him lots of juice so he had a bunch of accidents.  But he didn't tell me he was having them.  He didn't tell me that he had to pee but he also didn't tell me that he had gone.  And that was very disappointing to me because he'd been so good about that until now.  During lunch, he peed in his chair, so I got him off and put him on the potty, telling him that pee pee only goes in the potty and he needs to get on the potty or tell mommy when he needs to go.  He said ok and I left him there for awhile, much to his chagrin because he was still hungry.  After a few minutes, I let him get up and run around for a few minutes before our final potty try at nap time.  Haha, he started running circles around the kitchen table and diving on the rug in front of the door to the porch.  It was adorable.  He must have done that for about 10 minutes straight.

So then I put him back on the potty and left him there while I answered some email and cleaned up from lunch.  He told me that he'd peed again and I sang a song, congratulated him and asked him to stay there for a little while longer.  When I was ready to take him upstairs, I got him off the potty and was delighted to see that he'd pooped!!  I showed him and he looked legitimately surprised to see it in there.  I don't know if he was surprised that it had come out of him or just at what it looked like, but he had a little furrowed brow as he looked at it.  Then he said "bye-bye" and we took it to the big toilet to be flushed down.  Of course, we did big dances on the way, though.

He just got up from his nap and was dry.  I'm assuming that's because he peed so much before his nap and not because he's gaining bladder control but it's nice to hope.  :)  Hooray, Henry!!!  Everyone said there'd be setbacks and not to get disappointed.  And that's just how things seem to go.  There are enough setbacks to know that we've still got a long road ahead of us but enough successes that I don't feel like it's completely useless.  The day he tells us anything about having to go is going to be a BIG day.  Hooray!!

Day 7, am - Mommy's home today

I'm working from home today so I'm hoping that I can get him to go in the potty a little more regularly.  He went this morning when I got him up but then he was at the door watching the trucks building the house next door I heard the tell tale sounds of a boy tinkling on the floor.  I rushed over to see him standing there, watching it.  I ran over to grab him and when he saw me, he pointed it out, very interestedly. There was no, "uh-oh!" or anything at all.  Just kind of a, "hey mom!  Look what I can do!  Cool, huh?"  So I put him on the potty but by the time we got there, he was all done.  I left him there while I cleaned it up then went over and sat in front of him.  When he saw all of my paper towels and Lysol, I got the "uh-oh" I'd been expecting.  I made him turn off the iPad and look at me and told him that pee pee only goes in the potty and if he has to go pee pee, he needs to sit on the potty.  It doesn't go on the floor.  Only in the potty.  He said yes.  So we'll see.  He had breakfast and is back on it now, but I don't expect any more pee.  I did give him more juice and he LOVED it again so we'll get him drinking a lot again to encourage more peeing so we have more opportunities.  I'm HOPING that we can get him to poop on the potty again.  I feel like the more successes he has, the more likely he is to truly understand what we want him to do.  I mean, when he's hungry, he goes over and tries to get into his booster seat.  He doesn't exactly say, "hungry" but he'll point at the fridge and again, try to get into his chair for dinner.  So if he can do that and recognize that signal, I have to think he can figure out the potty thing.  Keeping my fingers crossed for better success today.

Day 6, pm - Not so hot

It doesn't appear that Henry had any more successes throughout the day.  It's kind of what I expected when he started going to Aunt Amy's.  I can't imagine he's going to want to sit still for long enough to concentrate and go, let alone stop what he's doing to sit down.  I guess he'd gone a little in his diaper during gymnastics but daddy brought the potty along with him and he went a little more in potty the parking lot after.  Way to go Henry!  Then they ran some errands and went straight to Aunt Amy's.  And that was pretty much it for successes before he came home.  I guess he pooped a couple of times in his diaper, one time getting upset and one time not.  He didn't pee in the potty at all.  Very disappointing.  When we came home, he did a good job of peeing in the potty before dinner so I guess that's another success.

I'm kind of the mind that he's training us instead of the other way around at this point.  But again, if after three weeks he's still not telling us that he has to go, we'll take a break for a while, I guess.  I sure hope we don't have to do that.  That would be discouraging.

Day 6, am - Home (and out and about) with Daddy

This morning, I was still home at 7 am when Henry got up, so I went up to get him.  I put him on the potty right away and then went into my bathroom to get ready.  A few minutes after I sat him there, I heard little foot stomps running around, so I went back into the living room to see what was going on.  I found him sitting happily on the steps to upstairs, watching the iPad.  The potty was peed in.  Again, baby boy went in the potty, realized he'd gone, probably came looking for me to tell me but didn't know where I was and decided he didn't need to be on it any longer.  What a good boy he is.  :)  We flushed it and then brought it in with me while I continued to get ready so that he could try a little longer.  I've found that most times, he goes a little bit then thinks he's done but he's actually not.  So I had him sit for a bit longer -- especially since he hadn't pooped -- and sure enough, he went a TON.  This time he didn't tell me, though.  After awhile, when I got him up, I asked him if he'd gone pee pee again and he said yes. When I looked, I couldn't believe how much he'd gone. Just tons.  So we dumped it in the potty, flushed it, and waved bye bye before getting a waffle for breakfast.  I set the timer so we could try pooping again before he left for gymnastics.

I left shortly after, so I don't know how the rest of the morning went.  He had gymnastics at 9 am with daddy and then they had to run to Walmart to pick up a bean bag chair for Henry's big boy room and to Montessori to pick up our CSA delivery for the week.  All in all, I expect them to be out for about 2.5 hours.  I don't know what daddy ended up doing.  Did he bring the potty with him?  Did he bring the seat so Henry could try on the big potty?  Did he just say "forget it" and not bother trying?  I hope it's not the last one, but who knows?

All in all, I think Henry boy is doing a great job.  He's more successful at home than he's been at Grandma's or Aunt Amy's, but I suspect it's because he's trained mommy and daddy better than he's trained the others.  I'm guessing we're more trained at this point than he is, though I do think he's learning.  He's still not really telling us when he has to go, but it's not been a week yet so I'm not too worried.  Yet.  The websites I've referenced say that, if they're not telling you they need to go within a few weeks, then it's probably time to stop and try again in a couple of months.  But again, we're just in the first week so I'm hoping he'll be ready to tell us by the end of next week if not sooner.  Fingers crossed!!!

Day 5, recap - Hits and misses

Henry boy spent the early morning with Grandma and then moved on to Aunt Amy's for the late morning and afternoon.  Here's what we have from both of them:

"Henry was very wet when he woke up.  The top of his pj bottoms were damp.  We sat on the potty right away but no action.  We took the potty downstairs.  he tried again four more times before we left for Amy's at 9:30 and we went a little bit one time.  In between, he wet his diaper quite a bit once and also pooped in another.  he had been on the potty shortly before the poop and again, he got very upset about pooping his pants.  He cried during the entire clean up and even for a short while after, in spite of me repeating it was ok."  

- Grandma, 11:27 am

"Hanky Pank went pee on the Elmo potty before his nap. He took a long nap today, 2.5 hours. As soon as he woke up I put him on the potty but he couldn’t go. We sat there about 10 minutes before I let him up. I’ll be trying again in about 25 minutes (he woke up at 3:30)."

- Aunt Amy, 4:02 pm

"My timing must be off. When I went to put Henry on the toilet he had poop in his diaper. I’ll try again soon, it was hard to tell if there was pee in the diaper too." 

- Aunt Amy, 4:26 pm

Daddy picked him up from Aunt Amy's and took him home for dinner.  He went pee pee in the potty before dinner, ate a HUGE dinner, then tried again before his bath.  He didn't have any success then but did a great job after his bath.  I was sitting right in front of him when we went and after going, he got up off the potty and came to sit in my lap.  So it really does seem like he knows what he's doing and that he can get off when he's all done.  Good job, little buddy.

Day 4, pm - Lots of success!

Per Grandma, the evening got a lot better than the morning started out:

"Two successes on the potty since waking from nap (he was wet then).  He would wet his pants a bit before the successes but let me know so we immediately sat.  Yay!!

Then… just sat on potty a little bit ago and had no action. Got up. A few minutes later, I looked at his pants and could see they are hugely wet!  He didn’t say a thing this time!  I said “oh no, did you go potty in your pants?”  He simply replied no.  Ha!  The joys of potty training!  Sometimes we are interested, sometimes we are not!"

We put him on the potty again at Grandma's when I picked him up but didn't get anywhere.  Came home, had dinner and then daddy put him on before bath.  It was great because he sat down and immediately went pee pee.  Truly immediately.  So fast that daddy thought he was joking.  He was so excited about it though, that I told Matt to check and sure enough, he'd gone!  Then he had his bath and daddy sat him on the potty again and wouldn't you know, our big boy went again!!  Hooray for Henry!  Progress progress progress!

Day 4, late morning - Grandma's update: not so hot

Not having very good results. We sit on the potty with Grandpa’s ipad every 30 mins and actually more when he makes motions (grabbing his pants and making noises) but only one time was there a little bit of pee.

He just sat on it again for maybe 7 mins, got up and we put on his 2^nd pair of pull ups (an earlier pair was slightly peed in) and he promptly peed them so much that a bit dribbled out and onto the floor (not sure how that happened!) but he knew and let me know some was on the floor.

Ok, in the 2 mins I’ve been writing this, Great grandma was watching him as he sat on the play table. He started crying and I went out to see what was going on…nothing apparent but I picked him up and found he had pooped his pants. A big messy one. Took an effort to clean it all up (that’s how messy and abundant it was!). I kept telling him it was ok and we would clean him up. Once he was clean he was fine but quite upset during the clean up.

Day 4, am - Off to Grandma's

We've completed our three-day intensive training bout and nobody seems to be too injured.  Daddy got Henry up this morning to get ready to go to Grandma's (Daddy is working 9-5 today and tomorrow), and Henry had a very successful pee pee.  Like yesterday, he celebrated each little dribble but then ended up going a whole lot after we left him there for awhile.  We put him in a pull-up for the ride over to Grandma's and left the rest up to her.  I'll be very interested to hear how it goes today under someone else's supervision.  She was disappointed that we didn't bring the iPad or the potty over with us, but I figured she's potty trained four kids plus helped potty train Brooklyn so she doesn't need our tips or methods.  I guess it's good, though, that she wants to do what we've been doing for consistency's sake.  I don't imagine it will work very well at Aunt Amy's house, but who knows?

Day 3, post nap, hour 1 - bladder control

My new theory is that he's just beginning to understand bladder control.  He did go pee pee in the potty after his nap, but it was only a couple of drips.  He was very proud of himself, though, so we celebrated accordingly.  I gave him a bunch of juice after and figured we'd go back to the "going, going, going" stage.  But what happened this time -- when mommy was watching him like a hawk -- was interesting.  he had a few dribbles in the house to which he exclaimed, "uh-oh!!"  I told him it was ok and told him that if he has to go pee pee, to sit on the potty.  He dribbled another time so I set him on the potty and told him that if he wanted the iPad, he needed to go pee pee in the potty.  He did another dribble and celebrated, but mommy wasn't happy with that.  We went out onto the porch and he dribbled a couple of more times, exclaiming each time, and I again told him that if he has to go pee pee, to sit on the potty.  I helped him sit down and he peed.  A lot.  He tried to get up after one but I told him to stay until he was all done and when he sat down, he went a few more times.  Quite a lot.

So, here's what I think: he recognizes what going pee pee feels like but he doesn't quite recognize the urge to pee feeling.  So it's not until it's leaking out that he knows he has to go.  And by that point, it's too late to get on the potty.  He's able to stop it, but doesn't seem to be able to recognize that it's time to go.  So it's not until mommy puts him on the potty that he really gets it.  But then, he really does seem to get it.  If we're able to keep this trend going, hopefully he'll gain the bladder control and recognize the urge to pee before too long.  I think this is a pretty good spot to be in after 3 days.  The poop thing on the other hand?  Well.  That's an entirely different bird all together.  No idea how that's going to go.  At least he doesn't seem to have a block against it like some kids so that's something.

Day 3, nap & immediately post - Fingers crossed!

Baby boy woke up from his nap dry.  Hmm.  Not sure what that means.  Could it possibly mean that he's getting some bladder control?  No.  Surely not.  Or could it?  We're on the potty right now and I'm REALLY interested to see what happens from here.  If he goes potty then I'm going to be over the moon.  If he doesn't, then I think I'm going to decide his bladder was just empty after the juice exodus of Henry's bladder from earlier today.  Egads, what a mess.  I'll keep you all posted on our findings.

Day 3, lunch time - He just keeps going and going and going...

So... I may have over done it with the juice.  He just keeps going.  Going and going and going.  Yes, he does it in the potty but he also has now done it in his red arm chair, on the floor in front of the potty, in his shopping cart, and various dribbles all over the floor.  My goodness!  The juice is effective if nothing else.  But the more times he pees, the more opportunities he has to succeed, so I guess that's good.  Just a little exasperating and disappointing because I really thought he got it.  This most recent time on the potty, he got on at the timer, sat down then nearly immediately popped right back up with a BIG smile on his face and pointed at the potty.  I asked if he'd gone and he shook his head yes.  Sure enough, he had!  I sat him back down and asked him to keep trying, to stay there until he was all empty.  He went again.  And again.  And again.  I don't know how many more times exactly but at least three more while I was watching.  Which honestly, is good, right?  I mean, it shows him that he may not be all empty just the first time he starts.  But keeping up with the messes is making mommy tired.

Grandpa asked why we're doing bare bottom.  There's a "potty train in three days" method that we're sort of following that calls for bare bottom training, but honestly, I'm doing it more for me.  I don't know how I'd know if he'd gone if he was wearing a pull up.  And with underoos, well, I'd have a lot more laundry to do.  According to the website for the 3 day potty training thing, it helps them, too, but I don't know exactly how.
This just in (or should I say, "out"): we just christened the floor again.  This one was particularly special because he ate beets for dinner last night so his poo was very very special indeed.  Like last time, he got upset after he did it, but he didn't try to hold it or make it to the potty.  Disappointing but again, it's only day 3.  I'm mostly disappointed because today ends most of my participation in the potty training escapade until the weekend.  I know we can't really expect him to be potty trained in 3 days (especially when we didn't follow the "potty train in 3 days" method) but I was hoping we'd at least be at a point where he could tell us that he needs to go.  I'm not sure that's going to happen or even that he'll do the whole "uh-oh" thing once he's back in a diaper.  But I guess that's Aunt Amy's problem then.  I considered getting cloth training pants because I've heard those are much more effective than pull-ups, but Amy has Carter in pull-ups and thought that Henry and Carter may help each other while they're in the same thing.  I guess we'll see.

Just feeling a little deflated like I failed a bit.  I have to remind myself that we had some BIG wins over the past few days and that we've still really got three months until this baby comes so there's a lot of time to work with him before then.

Day 1, hour 3 - Grandma to the rescue!!

Hooray for Grandma!  Daddy is out playing golf with Grandpa so we don't have a way to get to the store to get some juice, which is the only thing I can think of to get him to go potty more often.  After my mess up this morning of letting him play too long in his crib alone, I just haven't been feeling good about how the rest of the day was going to go.  And Henry hasn't been too interested in drinking milk or water, so I called Grandma and asked her to bring over a cup of it if she goes out today.  Well, of course, Grandma being Grandma, she took the call seriously and came right over with 1/2 a jug of Juicy Juice (100% juice.  :)  Way to go, Grandma!!!) grape juice.  We watered it down with about 1/3 water in his Mickey Mouse sippy cup and he has been chugging it.

During the last potty time, we sat him down and he had some great success!   But even more exciting was about 10 minutes later when he asked me for the iPad.  I told him he could only have it if he went pee pee in the potty so he sat down and almost immediately jumped up and pointed at it.  I went over to check and, sure enough, there was more pee pee in the potty!  I couldn't believe it!  So we celebrated and I gave him the iPad.

Unfortunately, then he went and sat in his red chair and peed there.  Then sat on the floor and peed there.  Then I put him back on his potty and he peed there, too.  So the juice is working but maybe a bit too good.  I got a little ahead of myself when I was thinking that he really was getting it because he didn't tell me anything about going pee pee in the chair or on the floor until afterward. But he did recognize that he'd gone and told me so I could clean it up. So that's something.  The journey continues.

Day 3, hour 2 - Getting it?

We haven't had any success this morning, but between timers, Henry told me that he wanted the iPad ("Bye-bah," he yelled at me).  I told him that he could have it when he goes pee pee in the potty or when the timer goes off.  He walked over to the potty and sat there while he was playing with his blocks.  After about 5 minutes, he called over to me and I asked if he'd peed.  He shook his head yes, held his penis, and hopped off the potty to show me.  There was a drop of liquid in the potty which may have actually been pee, but just as easily could have been condensation from the water cup he's been carrying around.  Regardless of what it was, he seemed to put together that something was supposed to come from his penis and be in the potty in order for him to be rewarded.  So.  Huge progress, right?  Maybe it IS working!

Day 3, hour 1 - :'(

What a dummy I am.  Disappointing start to the morning.  Henry woke up around 7 and he's so good that he plays quietly in his crib for ages.  So I let him. I didn't really think about anything except the fact that I didn't want to get up before 8 on a weekend.  Ugh.  So, at 8 when I went to get him, not only had he already peed but he'd pooped, too.  Which is totally expected.  He usually poops shortly after he wakes up.  I'm just so disappointed.  If I'd gotten up right when he did, I could have put him right on the potty and potentially kept him from doing that in his diaper.  I'm just so disappointed that I chose sleep over the continuation of our potty training.  He now may not pee again this morning until lunch time and he may not poop again today at all.  :'(  Boooo... bad mommy.

Day 2, bath time - Another success still!

Well, we've had quite the productive day.  He peed in the potty again before his bath so that's a lot more pees into the potty for the day than outside of it.  Again, still not sure if he knows what he's doing or if it's just that we have him on it SO much but I'm confident he'll get it before too long.  I'm a little worried about how Monday will go when he's back in a diaper -- albeit a pull up -- but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

What a GREAT second day!  I think that was four pees and a poop in the potty.  What a great job our little guy did!  We're super proud.  :D

Day 2, post nap - Another success!!

Pee pee in the potty!  Pee pee in the potty!!  Hooray!!  We did it!  Again, not sure if he's getting it or not but he's at least relaxing enough to let it flow when he's sitting on it.  Hooray hooray hooray!!  Maybe tomorrow we'll push back to an hour and see if he can tell us that he has to go?  I ask him if he's gone when he's sitting on the potty but 90% of the time he says yes so he's not a very reliable narrator.

Hooray!!  We're making progress!  We only had the two small accidents today and they were both on the way to his poop.  Way to go, baby boy!

Day 2, lunch time - Two misses and a BIG success!!

Poo poo in the potty!  Poo poo in the potty!  Hooray hooray hooray!!!  Guess who just pooped in the potty!!  I'll give you a hint: it wasn't me or Matt.  Well, I mean, I guess technically both Matt and I did poop in the potty today but I didn't really think that was blog worthy.  Ha!

I wasn't sure it was going to work at all this time because he peed a little bit on the floor and said, "uh oh" which helped Daddy notice.  Daddy was wonderful and swept him right onto the potty but didn't have him sit there very long.  So then, they went outside to play at the water table and Daddy noticed Henry peeing, but Henry didn't say anything.  So again, Daddy swept him up and put him on the potty.  This time, I felt a little dumb because I knew he shouldn't have been done after the little pee he'd had.  So I asked Matt to just leave him there this time, figuring that he probably wouldn't go a third time but at least it would reinforce the potty for peeing. Matt explained to him that pee pee goes in the potty and when he has to go, he needs to go to the potty.  I still don't think he gets it because every time you say "did you go pee pee?" he flushes the potty.  But anyway, we left him there for awhile and after about 5-10 minutes, he said, "uh-oh!"  Which generally means he's peed.  I ran over to look and saw pee on the floor, but he was still sitting on the potty.  But he's a boy, so either his little dude was pointed in the wrong direction or he peed with such force that it ricocheted back out.  Either way, he peed while sitting on the potty so we did the potty dance to celebrate.  He was pretty upset about the pee on the floor, so I quickly got some paper towels to clean it up.  He stayed on the potty while I did that and I peeped in the potty -- between his legs -- to see how much, if any, was in the potty. And I saw a few solid lumps.  HOORAY!!

We did an exuberant dance, this time including both daddy and mommy, and helped him stand up so he could look in.  He was very upset when he saw it there.  We told him again and again that it was very good and hugged him and kissed him and gave him a sticker and did the potty dance, but he didn't seem very convinced.  As with the pee pee, we picked up the potty and emptied it in the big potty, then let Henry flush.  We wiped his bum and washed his hands and then let him have the iPad wherever he wanted.  So far, he's only been allowed to play with it if he was sitting on the potty.

Anyway.  He pooped in the potty.  I'm over the moon excited about it.  Still not sure if he has a clue what we're so excited about when we do the potty dance, but I think he'll get there.  Hooray!!

Day 2, noonish - nothing.

Well, there hasn't been anything at all since our success this morning.  We've been good about watching him and putting him on the potty but no poops at all and only that one successful pee.  He didn't eat much yesterday so maybe he doesn't have a lot going on in there but I'm still really surprised because he usually poops in the morning, usually even before we get him out of bed.

In other news, he's sitting half naked on the floor right now vacuuming, sound effects and all.  With all of the nice toys we have, his favorite things seem to be brooms, mops and the vacuum.  What a crazy boy.  I posted a video below.  It was supposed to be longer but there's not enough memory on my phone to save another video and I can't get out the iPad without Henry thinking it's for him so, you'll have to make do with the 10 seconds of cuteness I was able to get.

Day 2, hour 1 - Another Success!

Maybe he's getting it?  I don't know.  We got up and sat right on the potty... with the iPad of course.  He watched for a few minutes then he seemed to get upset and got up to sit in my lap.  Well, it turns out he'd gone potty!  I don't think he was really upset but telling me that he'd gone and was done.  Hooray!!  Day 2 starts out on a super positive note!

Day 1, bed time - Success!!

Hooray!  We have another win to chalk up to our big boy!  I sat him on the potty before his bath and then ran downstairs to get his toothbrush (daddy likes to brush his teeth in the master bath).  When I came back up, I brushed his teeth then picked him up to put him in his bath.  Low and behold, there was liquid in the potty!  Mommy did an exuberant dance with singing and clapping. I'm not sure he really knew what he'd done but he loved the singing and clapping.  Then, like before, we emptied out the potty into the big potty and Henry got to flush it.  I tried to give him a goldfish graham cracker but he spat it out.  So I tried giving him a marshmallow.  He spat that out, too. Then I tried a sticker.  He stuck it to his tummy then said, "No, nooooo..." so I helped him get it off.  And we 'potty danced' back up stairs.  We're going to try m&ms tomorrow and if that doesn't work, well then we'll just keep up the dancing.  My boy doesn't really like sweets.  Go figure.  Hooray for pee pee in the potty!!

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to pay closer attention so I know when he's doing it.  It's not very effective if he has no idea what he's doing that's making mommy so happy.  Obviously, he'll get it at some point but he's really trying so hard that I feel like I'm failing him when I'm not helping him succeed.  What a sweet boy we have.  :)  xoxo Henry, baby.

Day 1, post nap, hour 2 - D'oh!

Oh mommy!  I missed it again.  I wasn't supposed to leave the house at all.  Not at all.  But it's storming outside and I'm cranky about the way our yard was graded, so we went outside for a minute to look at it.  Wouldn't you know, that's when he peed.  We're on the potty every 30 minutes for 5-10 minutes and he pees or poops whenever we're not.  I tell him to go pee pee in the potty and he flushes it.  So I think the point is not getting across quite yet.  I think we need to find a way to get him to drink more so we have more opportunities.  He's on the potty now, but I think he's probably done peeing for the day.  It's 5:45, I'll get him off in a few minutes then we'll reset the timer.  After it goes off, we'll sit again then eat dinner then go up for bath time and bed.  I guess there are a few more opportunities but he hasn't been drinking much so I'm not going to hold my breath.

Over all, a disappointing day.  Not in him but in myself.  I didn't watch him very closely to look for signs of pooping and didn't seem to ever have the potty close enough to rush him off while he was still peeing.  We'll get a fresh start tomorrow.  Again, keeping expectations low and optimisim/patience high and see what happens.  Wish us good luck!

Day 1, Post nap, hour 1 - another mess

Dang it!  I missed by just a hair.  As predicted, he peed a lot while he was sleeping, but we put him on the potty anyway, just in case.  Then we came downstairs and set the timer for 30 minutes.  At 29 minutes and 30 seconds, he got really upset and I heard the sound of liquid hitting the floor.  Apparently, he pooped a little bit again and that's what upset him so much.  And while he was pooping, he peed a little bit.  30 seconds later and we'd have been on the potty.  I wonder if he'd have pooped...?  Arrgh!  Oh well.  The grand experiment continues.

Day 1, Nap time - No more success

Well, Daddy is putting Henry down for a nap and we haven't had another success -- or failure for that matter -- yet.  Poor little guy.  Just not drinking enough, I guess.  I'm sure he's going to pee his brains out during his nap, dagnabit.  But we'll get there.  So far, this experiment is going much better than I expected.  I guess I really had no idea how often he peed.  I kind of thought it was like every 20 minutes or something, I guess.  I was expecting to have to clean up messes all day long.  But at our 1/2 way point, there have only been two potty-able instances.  Fascinating.

Day 1, hour 3 - no more progress

Here's where the sickness is kicking in, I think.  My boy hasn't peed again since the first time this morning.  I'm trying to get him to drink tons of water so that he'll have to go more frequently but he's just not interested in either eating or drinking right now.  Meh.  We'll see what I can do to coerce him into it.

UPDATE:
I ended up going to a Mickey Mouse sippy cup.  He loves those things.  We don't use sippy cups at our house.  If we're going out somewhere, we use straw cups but we never ever use sippy cups.  I read somewhere that they can cause speech problems so we just phased them out as early as we could.  He loves them, though.  LOVES them.  He steals Brook's and Carter's every opportunity he gets.  So, I thought this might work. Turns out, it does.  Why does water taste different out of a sippy cup than a regular one?  I don't know.  But it got him to drink so no complaints here.  I might even have Matt get some juice while he's out.  Gasp!  Juice?!  In our house?  Imagine!  But if it gets this boy drinking, why not?  Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Day 1, hour 2 - Our first mess

Well, I can never say again that our floors have never been pooped on.  Not that that was a particular point of pride for me or anything.  I mean, I guess maybe it was a bit of an unspoken prideful thing.  I never really used it as a selling point on the house or anything, though.

In the "in between" time of the kitchen timers, Henry was up playing with daddy while my back was turned.  I didn't see his face or anything to be able to tell if he portrayed the tell tale pooping signals, but the next thing I heard was him whining and running to cuddle into daddy, very upset.  Matt picked him right up and placed him on the potty and said, "that's ok, honey.  It's ok."  When I turned around, I saw two big logs on the floor and Henry boy was very upset.  Was he upset because he pooped on the floor?  I don't know.  He's pooped outside of a diaper before and didn't get upset but we weren't potty training then.  So who knows?

Anyway, mommy scooped up the poo and put it in the potty, making sure Henry saw.  Then we carried it into the bathroom and dumped it in the big potty and let him flush it.  Then washed his hands.  So I've had that experience now.  Interested to see how this day goes...

Day 1, hour 1 - our first "success"

Having never done this before and really, having no idea what I'm doing, my plan was to set the kitchen timer for every hour, ask him if he needed to go potty, and sit him on it every time the timer goes off.  I shut the doors to the rooms with carpet and moved all of Henry's favorite toys into the main room (which is hard wood) or the porch.  I put the potty out in the main room for convenience and fed my boy some breakfast out on the porch.  I told him that if he has to go pee pee or poopy that he needs to come in and tell mommy then sit on the potty.  About 10 minutes after he started breakfast, he came back in, stood in the door way and said, "doo doo" then walked over to the potty.  I couldn't believe it!  Was this going to actually work?

I asked him if he needed to go poopy or pee pee and helped him get centered on the potty.  He sat there for about a minute then tried to get up.  I encouraged him to sit back down and asked if he wanted the iPad.  Of course he did.  He exclaimed, "bye-bah!" (which is how he says iPad).  I told him to stay right where he is and mommy would get him the iPad.  I ran into the bedroom, grabbed the iPad and came back out to find him exactly where I'd left him.  I gave him the iPad and sat with him for a few minutes, keeping my fingers tightly crossed.  Nothing.  But I really didn't expect him to poop on the potty in the first 10 minutes of us trying potty training.  So I wasn't disappointed or anything.

I got up to go back to my business and when I did, Henry tried to follow.  Actually, he tried to get up and go sit in his little red arm chair.  I told him that he's only allowed to use the iPad while he's sitting on the potty, so he promptly sat back down and settled in for a good watch.  A few minutes later, he got up again, set the iPad down and stuck his hand in the potty.  I thought he needed help with the iPad but when I went over to him, I found that he'd gone pee pee in the potty!!  Hooray!  I scooped him up and we did a dance and I gave him a little goldfish cookie. We went and told daddy, washed his hands, and emptied out Henry's potty into the big potty together.

And then we came back into the main room and reset the timer and I got to wondering if what I'm doing is a good idea.  I mean, I have no idea if he even knew that he peed or understood what I was celebrating.  I don't know if having him sit on the potty for 20 minutes before he pees is effective at all.  I just don't know if doing it this way is going to make the connection for him or not.  I guess we'll find out.

Here's a pic of him "trying":

Day 1 - Getting started

We've officially started potty training.  I wasn't sure if we should start today or not because he's sick and had a bit of a rough night last night.  He has this persistent cough that keeps him up unless he's taken Tylenol recently.  I gave him some last night before he went to bed, then again at midnight and again at 5 am. He wasn't crying any of those times, but coughing coughing coughing, so I went up to find him laying awake in his bed.  Sweet little guy.  But, I'm anxious to get started to so I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a shot anyway.

While Henry was in his crib this morning, I went in and told him that we were going to try going pee pee in the potty today so we needed to say bye-bye to his diapers.  Then I asked him if he wanted to try going pee pee in the potty like a big boy and like mommy and daddy.  He shook his head yes.  So I told him that we weren't going to wear any diaper at all and that when he has to go potty, he should tell mommy and go sit down on the potty.  He again shook his head.  I took that as the affirmation I needed that he was ready and not too sick to try.

We're going to try a mixture of the "potty train in 3 days" and our own method.  Basically, we're going to keep him bare for three solid days straight (except for naps and over night) and then I guess try pull ups when we're back to Aunt Amy's house on Monday.  No idea how/if this is going to work, but I'm ready and I feel like he's ready so it's go time.  It would be so awesome to have him potty trained before new baby comes.  I'm trying to keep my expectations low and my optimism/patience high so that no matter what happens, we're pleased.  We'll see.