Potty Training Advances

Despite the fact that Obama is still pushing for a "limited air strike" against Syria for their use of Sarin gas against civilians, I still have a son at home who is working on potty training.  To be perfectly honest, I care a little more about our son mastering his bowel movements than I do about whether or not we bomb Syria.  I have made my opinion clear on that matter, we shouldn't bomb them, and from the news reports, it seems that the majority of Americans are in agreement with me.  So until something new gets reported, I will revert back to the more important matter at hand, ensuring that our son is out of diapers before his little brother or sister is born.  There is nothing my wife and I want more than to have to deal with only one child in diapers at a time.  And the good news is, it looks like our son is getting closer to that goal.  Over this past weekend, he began making improvements on making it to the potty in time to pee.  He is learning how to hold his muscles a little longer and when it finally comes time to pee, pushing that pee out into his little potty.  Soon, we will probably be moving up to the big toilet.  But for now, his little portable potty is much easier, especially when it has to happen quickly.  Yesterday at day care, our son went pee three times on the big toilet, a large improvement from the previous week where he went only once towards the end of the week.  It seems those weekend days where he runs around the house and yard naked are paying off.  Originally we noticed that he would rely on the pull-ups or diapers to catch any pee or poop he had whereas now he can actually control it a little bit more.  The whole notion behind having your child naked actually makes sense.   When you see them start to pee, you can tell them, "hey, your peeing, lets go to the potty!"  When they are in a diaper or pull-up, however, you have no clue when they have to go and as such, can't notify them when they start to urinate or poop.  (I don't know, to me, urinate has a much better ring to it than defecate does, just saying).  Yet, despite all these improvements, there was one funny little incident over the weekend where our son didn't make it to the potty and we didn't even know about it until we went to go outside. 

 

You see, our son was playing in our mudroom off the kitchen by himself before we went into our backyard.   About to put on my sandals to go outside, I looked down and noticed a little yellow puddle in one of my sandals.  Perhaps he thought my sandal was a potty or perhaps it just worked out that way, but the puddle was only in the sandal, no where else.  While a tad disturbing because I where those sandals every day, it was immensely funny at the same time.  Luckily, they are Addidas sandals and I was able to just wash it right off with the hose.   In any case, potty training is moving along quite well and I am hoping that within the month our son will be completely potty trained, at least during the day time, and his diapers can be put aside and saved for the next little one to come along.   So speaking of our next little one, possible names are completely eluding us thus far.  Yet, it is still a little early to be deciding on what possible names we should use when our child is born.  I remember that we didn't even start considering names for our son till about 2-3 months before birth.  At this point, we are still 4.5-5 months away, still a good chunk of time to make a decision.  Its kind of funny, but we are both fixating on boys names right now, perhaps a portent as to what might actually happen or just a deep seated hope that perhaps we will have another boy.  To us, it doesn't matter what we have, boy or girl, as long as our child is healthy.   As I mentioned before, we will not be finding our the sex of our child before birth as we did with our first.  We still maintain that it is one of the few true surprises that one has left in this world and we will capitalize on that to the fullest.  So for now, we wait, we ponder names, we work on potty training with our current son, and I chip away at putting our son's new room back together.  It was much easier working on his first room when I didn't have to worry about making too much noise after a certain hour.  With him going to bed at 630/7, it severely limits the amount of time I can spend on his room.  When I get home in the afternoon/evening, I don't want to run right up and start working.  I would rather spend time with our son, playing with him, than working on his room.  In any case, I have till Thanksgiving to get it done, so I am not overly worried yet, just a little.  Till tomorrow, be well and do a nice deed for someone else.