Potty Training 101

Since Cody is 28 months old and I am on Spring Break this week, I decided now would be a great time to start potty training.  Yesterday afternoon I let Cody pick a pair of underwear that he wanted to put on.  He went with a very stylish pair of Spiderman undies.  I set the timer for 15 minutes and tell him when it goes off  "It's POTTY TIME!!" He looks at me and says..."NO."

 Fast forward 15 minutes.  Timer goes off and we all yell "POTTY TIME!!" "WOOHOO" etc.  I manage to wrestle, cajol, and bribe Cody onto the potty seat on the toilet.  We read 2 books (no trashy magazines or newspapers in our bathroom!) and no pee. So we get down, wash our hands and re-set the timer for another 15 minutes.  Fast forward another 15 minutes.  Same story BUT different ending.  CODY PEED ON THE POTTY!!!!  Yay! So he got 4 M&M's and we re-set the timer. After 15 minutes, he says "I don't gotta pee."  Ok fine.  !5 minutes later same thing so I  say ok but next POTTY TIME!! you have to try.

 8.3 seconds later Kayla yells that she thinks Cody wet his underwear.  Yep he did.  So I offer him new underwear and he refuses. Flat out.  Not going to happen.So I put him in a diaper and tell him that when he wakes up tomorrow we will try again.

Today I put him in underwear.  30 minutes into our day he pees!  WOOHOO!  Yay!  Then I took a phone call, so Nana (aka my mom) watches him.  Mind you, I am using the term "watching" very loosely. 8 minutes later he pees somewhere. No one knows where but his undies are wet.  So I put him on the potty and nothing.   Clean underwear and re-set the alarm.  A couple of minutes later I notice that he has disapeared into his room. As soon as I walk in the door, I see the bulge by his butt.  Are you kidding me?? So I ask him did you ppo in your underwear.  No Mom. After that I put him back in a diaper and decided to wait some a little longer before potty training.

I called DJ (since he is on his way home from Tahoe) and told him about our morning.  This is our conversation:
Me: Cody peed on the potty.
DJ:  Great.
Me: Cody peed in his underwear.
DJ: Not so great.
Me: Cody pooped in his underwear.
DJ: Even less not so great.

WOW!! That was insightful.


So what have we learned from this tale?

* Always wait until YOUR child is ready to potty train before trying.  Saves everyone a lot of frustration.
* Don't let a child in underwear out of your sight.
* If  you go with the timer method actually put your child on the potty EVERY time it goes off.
* Men (at least all the men I know) know nothing about potty training. ;)
The funny thing is you'd think I would know these rules since I have potty trained 2 boys and 1 girl.  But no.  I guess since Jacob was so easy that I thought Cody would be the smae way. So I guess that is another lesson learned.
* All children are different and learn at different rates.