Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The path towards big boy underpants has a lot of curves!

Potty training is such a weird experience! There are so many "theories" out there and regardless of the approach, pretty much everyone gets potty trained at some point in their life. I think we'd all agree sooner rather than later is better, especially if you are like me and have two kids in diapers at the same time. The Zany family has taken the approach of letting Wacky Zacky lead the way with potty training-we won't push or force him and will encourage any progress that occurs. Yesterday we had not one but two learning experiences on the path towards the goal of "big boy underpants".

The first incident happened when Wacky Zacky, Zany Janie, and I were cleaning the house. We were all still in our pj's and Wacky Zacky decided he needed to use the bathroom. It was a huge production for him to unzip his footie pj's, get them off, and take his diaper off, especially since he wouldn't allow any help from me, but he somehow managed to do it not once but twice and make it to the bathroom without any problems.

About half an hour after his second time at "the john" he decided to strip down to his birthday suit. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom and he informed me he just wanted to be naked. So I pondered this and decided it would be okay since we were staying in the house and other mom's I knew had used this technique to help with potty training. I sat Wacky Zacky down and we had a frank discussion about where I expected any bodily fluids to go. He basically solemnly swore that he'd use the toilet and ran off to dance and frolic about naked. About 10 minutes went by and as I was scrubbing the floors Wacky Zacky shouted, "Look at me Mommy!" I looked up to see my naked son standing on the coffee table arching backwards as a stream of pee shot out of him hosing the whole table. I don't know how you mamas used this technique when potting training, but I'm going to have to say I don't think it's for the Zany household!

The second incident happened later in the day. I was multi-tasking by talking to a good friend on the phone, folding laundry, and keeping an ear out for any trouble as Wacky Zacky and Zany Janie ran up and down the hall chasing each other. The next thing I knew Wacky Zacky came waltzing into the room and said, "Here Mommy, Zacky pooped" as he handed me his poopy diaper only to race from the room. I started chasing him-which I know was a mistake because it just made him run faster, but what would you have done?-and when I caught him and lifted his shirt I found that practically every inch of his tiny toosh was smeared with poop! So I cleaned it up and we had a discussion about how he needed to either poop in the toilet or tell Mommy when he needed his diaper changed.

Oh the joys of parenthood! Is it me or does the path towards big boy underpants have a lot of curves and switchbacks? Here I thought it would be a direct route!

Zany thought of the day: Which memories do you remember the best-the ones with the curves and switchbacks or the ones where you took a direct path?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

All I'm going to say is "LOL!!!!"

Boody Babies said...

That is hilarious!!! I have only potty trained my daughter (my son is yet to come and everyone is warning me how different boys are), but I never tried the naked thing. We tried the letting her do it on her own schedule and using the pull ups and eventually the reward system was instituted (all to no avail). Succes came with the reverse reward system. We tried sneaking in a reward, but she saw it and demanded it (it was a toy tool set with tool belt, hammer, the works) so we relented and gave it to her on the condition she not lose her stars, or flowers (on the pull ups, they disappear when wet) or we would start taking the tools away (one tool for each accident). From that moment on, she never potttied in her pullups or underpants again.

Tim and Jen said...

I know everyone says to use underware when potty training I left both boys in diapers till they were completely trained. It didn't take long, we waited for them. They got the potty thing down pretty quick and they stayed in diapers in case of poop accidents until that was taken care of!
I think if your gonna use the naked bit, I'd take him in the back yard, I know my kids prefer peeing on the plants, as a matter of fact Deven and I were out and about and I had to go to the bathroom so we were driving around looking for a gas station and Deven said "Mommy why don't you pee on the grass and kill it like me", with a huge smile on his face!!!
It will happen, in it's own time, the only truth I have found to potty training is that the second kid trains a lot quicker then the first!

storybeader said...

that's one thing I don't miss, not having kids myself. Can't imagine what it's like...