… If she’s already started teaching her 22 month old brother how to do it.
I was making dinner. Tuna noodle casserole. From scratch. It is a time-sensitive recipe with much stirring or else there will be much scalding.
I heard Olivia taking on a rather maternal tone with her litle brother in the living room. It moves a bit further away and I can no longer hear the conversation. It’s really nothing out of the ordinary. She is my Little Mommy, after all.
And then she comes running into the kitchen, excitement gleaming from her eyes.
“Mommy, Benjamin’s going potty!”
“Oh, that’s nice, honey.” (They do love to pretend. But I better make sure…) “He’s still wearing his pants, right?”
“No.”
“But he’s still got a diaper on, right?”
“No. I took them off so he could go potty.”
I think maybe I should risk some scalding milk here, just to make sure everything’s on the up-and-up. A brisk walk to the bathroom confirms her story. Benjamin is, indeed, pants-and-diaper-less and sitting on his little potty.
Now, you may be thinking that I’ve actually iniated some kind of actual potty-training with this boy, but I would like to clear that up right now: I have not. About twice a week, he declares he has to go potty. So we sit him down. He lasts about 10 seconds before gleefully jumping up and streaking through the house. Which, 60% of the time, ends in a pee puddle somewhere to be discoveredd later.
And I don’t intend to start the potty-training anytime soon, either. My honest reaction when he first expressed interest went something like this: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I mean, I had just finished with Olivia, and she still has some pretty regular accidents! (She’s getting much better, though, as long as we stay in our routine.)
So, back to the story, having a naked little non-potty-trained boy loose in the house while I’m making a time-sensitive dinner is not the most relaxing thought. But he was sitting on the potty very nicely, and I had to get back to stir the roux. So I did the logical thing and left the 3 year old with these instructions: “Just don’t let him pee on the floor.”
*Smiles*
Back in the kitchen, I listened more intently and heard Olivia instructing Benjamin in the ways of “pushing out the pee-pee.” But he wasn’t ready for the schooling, apparently, because the next thing I hear is pitter-patter, pitter-patter, “Hey, you, come back here!” giggle giggle pitter-patter.
*Sighs*
I let them run as I cube the cheese, and pretty soon, Olivia’s giggles turn to frustrated yells as she continues to try to get Benjamin’s diaper back on him. With this maternal streak she’s immersed herself in, I wouldn’t be surprised if she took to spanking, so I gave in, stirred the roux one last time (and turned the heat down a smidge, just in case), and took action.
Surprisingly, I was able to capture and diaper the unruly nude all before any thickening or bubbling or scalding or burning occurred.
So, although I know this story would be more interesting if I burned dinner and had little puddles of pee all over my house, the story ended exceptionally well.
Anyone else have some funny dinner-prep-with-toddlers stories? Humor me.
I do have a potty story for you. My daughter is the same age as your son – she is 21 months old, almost 22 months. Anyway, last month, I was potty training my 3 year old and decided to potty train Annabelle (the 20 month old) as well. I figured she was a good candidate because she was verbal, took off her clothes, showed interest in the potty and often brought me a diaper when she needed a change. If I am going to sit int he bathroom reading books to the 3yo, I might as well do it for her, too!
Well, on the second day of potty training, she actually went pee in the potty. I forgot to warn her that the potty plays music when she goes pee pee. She is a sensitive little girl. Very. Sensitive. She freaked out, screaming hysterically. To make my long story shorter, I will say that I ruined her. She screamed every time she needed to go potty. Even with a diaper on. Even in the middle of the night. Every time. After about a week, we were down to just crying and not screaming. Now, after a month and a half, we are down to an occasional whimper. Sigh. Hopefully this summer she will have forgotten all about the musical potty and we can try again. Without the music!
oh rachel what a sad story…i feel for you and your little girl…
when my not quite 2 yr old girl decided her 2 friends ( i did home daycare) were potty trained, she would be too, i cried, i diverted her…..i was hugely pregnant and i was afraid she’d regress…routines are NOT MY STRONG SUIT
thank goodness i didnt have carpets, cause she’d take off her diaper and sit on the potty for 40 min voluntarily, in front of the tv……and then there were puddles of pee and piles of poop all over the floor all the time…my floors were never cleaner due to the 10 times a day washing with bleach…..
i was never negative, (crying franticly yes,…but negative no…) 6 weeks of this…she’d want panties, she got them,….she wanted diapers i let her…one day i was taking to my daycare moms and said..i’ve had it…i think we’ll put potty away again…(btw she was dry at night since like 12 months)…she asked for panties right after that conversation and had NO ACCIDENTS again…(seriously, it was at least a year…)
my son took 14 months to train, i’m not even kidding…he was pee trained in a few months, poop took over a year…..he’d hold it in for 4 days and explode….he was never in diapers or pull ups, big boy undies only..and again lots of bleach in the laundry…
so hang in there…and here i am wanting more kids..i’d be happier if in diapers till 3.5 and then auto toilet train by themselves..i’ll breast feed, i’ll change diapers, heck i don’t even complain at labour…i HATE toilet training….lol
omgosh..i scared all the commenters away…call me the “thread kiiller” …sorry…..
Celina – Ha! No, they just don’t want to be as honest. 😛 But I’m with you! I’ll nurse for two years, change diapers for three, but potty training! Gah! 🙂
At least you have a happy ending, Celina!!
I am much more of the mindset, “Wait until they can self train” the more kiddos I have. (We have 4 successfully potty trained now). I would’nt have tried my daughter (the 20 month old – now almost 22 months), except for the reasons I said already in my previous post.
Cloth is supposed to help them want to train earlier, right? Have you heard that? I have only cloth diapered my last two (out of six), and neither of them are trained yet, so we will see!
So pleased I happened upon this page, really glad to have read this, I’m interested in considering what others share on the subject.