Potty Training- Week 1

We started out with a bang.  Adam was very interested in potty training, especially the part where he gets to wear truck pull-ups, put stickers on charts, and eat apple rings- his favorite candy.  He was all over reading books on the potty, going to the potty instead of going to bed, asking for more drinks to make more pee, and running to the potty to get even a teaspoon of pee into the froggy potty so we could cheer and high-five and wave the pee bye-bye.  He was happy to sit and sing songs like this- 

Jingle bells,
Jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!

Oh, what fun it is
To ride in a
Sle-e- e-e-e-eigh!

He has even had success with putting poop in the potty!  He seemed mildly disgusted by the first one ("really?  That's what it looks like fresh out of the shoot?") but he was so proud of the second one, he carried it (in the bowl) through the house and up the stairs to show me (I was nursing Emma).  Ack!  After he ran through the house to find me the third time around, we had to institute the no running through the house with poo on your bum rule. 

So!  Is Adam fully potty-trained?  Not even close. 

Sometime in the later part of the week, he lost interest in the potty, the rewards, the staying-dry-just-because-you-can fun of it all.  I asked him a few days ago if he wanted to check to see if his pull-up was dry (which earns him a sticker on the potty chart) and he said, "No, Mom.  It doesn't really matter."  Well, how can I argue with that logic?  He went on to tell me that he had already peed in his pull-up, so the truck wheels were gone.  Yesterday, we were out for way too long without a potty in the car, and he Will. Not. sit on an adult-sized toilet.  Oh, the sad look of confusion on his face when he had to poo in his diaper because there was no froggy potty to be found. 

There is a pull-up in that picture up there, but we sure have seen a lot of toosh around here lately.  And did you know that washable markers on a kitchen floor make for a great shapes lesson?

Some potty thoughts...

I know that we are going to have to dedicate more attention to this effort if it's going to get done.  On one hand, I want it to get done- I think he's capable of being potty-trained with a LOT of encouragement and reminders- but on the other hand, diapers are pretty darn easy.  And to think of going on a 10 day vacation lugging around the froggy potty?  That thought alone makes me want to shelve it until we get back.

I know that pull-ups are just glorified diapers, but I don't think we're ready to graduate to big-boy underwear and all of the wetness that come with them just yet.

Whatever I said last week about potty-training Adam being easier than Leah because he is older... I take it back.  Adam has two sisters that are distracting me from the sole task of teaching the boy how to use the toilet!  One has to be picked up from preschool, the other needs to be put down for a nap.  Or I am feeding the baby, or taking someone to the doctor.  It takes a concentrated effort to get a two-year-old on and off and on and off the potty, and I haven't been putting my best effort into it.  Most days start out great, but by the afternoon, when I know that his post-nap pull-up is soaked, I kind of give up.  This is presenting me with all kinds of mommy-guilt, but I'm not sure that it's even really time to be potty training, so I am trying not to be too hard on either of us.

At this point we have one foot in potty training, so I feel like we can't back out now.  I'm just worried that this road is going to be a long and harder one than necessary because we jumped the potty gun.