Potty-Training Update, or TMI about my 2-year-old's toilet habits

Potty-Training Update, for all those interested, but mostly just for me and mine.

Can I just start by saying how much I hate potty training?  Cuz I do.  I was right to wait as long as I did with Hobbes.  I'm not so sure how right I was to start him when I did.  It is so hard.

On the one hand, he can totally handle it.  He can and does use the potty when he wants to.  It all started out great when it was new and he was excited about it.  Then he realized that it is work, and that the work has to be done each and every time he needs to "go".  It was at that point that he decided that he doesn't want to be a big kid after all.  Unders aren't all they are cracked up to be.  He has told me that he wants to be a baby.  He has told me that he can't do it "because he's too little."  He has decided that peeing right there on the floor is a perfectly acceptable option.  It's easier, after all, than walking 5 feet to the nearest toilet.

Gah, I really don't like this.  Least favorite thing about being a parent.

Here's another thing that makes it hard, or at least different from when I trained Gunner.  With Gunner, I spent almost a whole week just focusing on his training needs.  We didn't leave the house or venture away from a potty for days.  I followed him around like a spy, watching his every move, knowing exactly when he would need to use the potty.

I just haven't been able to give Hobbes that kind of attention this time.  Day Two of training is an essential day, in my opinion.  Taking care of #1 is no big deal at this point, since the kid has had so much practice.  But #2 is a different story.  It's soooo new to them, and feels so foreign to let it go in a toilet bowl instead of nestled up close in a diaper, as gross and foreign as it seems to us.  They don't get all that much practice at it, since it really only happens once every day or so (ballpark), and it's essential not to miss those #2 teaching moments, or you end up dragging out training for a reallyreallyreally long time. 

My big mistake is that I did miss them.  Friday (Day Two), we were invited to the neighbor's house to play in the yard.  The boys were riding bikes and playing with bubbles.  Hobbes showed no signs of discomfort.  I checked on him several times, and he always insisted that he didn't need to go.  I continued to talk to the neighbor ladies while watching the kids play.  Hobbes disappeared around the corner for just a moment, and came back with pants full of poop.  Cleaning up poopy unders is way worse than changing a poopy diaper.  It just is.

Blast!!!

Then there is the fact that Hobbes is so much quieter about it than Gunner was. The next morning, I went on a long run with a friend.  Spiff stayed home with the kids.  Hobbes pooped his pants while sitting next to Spiff.  He didn't even know.

Ahh, so frustrating.

Also, I decided I needed to drop night-time diapers for him.  I think that it was confusing for him to be allowed to go in a diaper sometimes, but not others.  I was giving him permission to be blasé about this.  So, put away all the diapers, and we're down to strict unders now.

Gah!  Stress.

So, here we were on Sunday, four days into training, with dwindling interests in the toilet, and without a successful pooping experience.  Sunday, when we have to spend so much of the day at church.  This particular Sunday when Spiff is on call.  I would have skipped it if I didn't have a church schedule full of things today, including running choir rehearsal, accompanying the musical number in sacrament meeting, subbing in nursery, and helping Gunner with his primary talk.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how we were going to make it through the day.  But we did.  Hobbsie wore unders to church and had zero accidents while were there.  Good boy.

Then we spent an hour after dinner tonight coaxing him to go #2 in the potty.  He so badly didn't want to.  He asked me for a diaper.  I refused to give it to him.  He looked like he was in so much pain holding it in.  I begged him to go in the toilet.  I comforted, hugged, coaxed, pleaded, cajoled, bribed...you name it.  It took him a solid hour.  He held onto it until he couldn't any longer.  But he did it!  Hoorah!!!  I rewarded him with a cup full of M&Ms.

I'm so proud of him, and so excited to have a success!  He will figure this out.  He will.  And I will try to be patient, even though I hate potty training so very much.  Please pray for us.