Number Two

I always said that I would never have a three year old still wearing diapers. Boy, was I naive. Now here we are, with two weeks until Eddie's third birthday, and I am just happy that we've started potty training, even though I'm fairly confident it will not be completed by May 3.

After one reading of My Big Boy Potty a few weeks ago, Eddie decided he wanted to use the potty. And so it began. By now, when I consistently make him sit on the potty, he is pretty good about using it. He still doesn't understand that he can tell me in advance when he needs to go. I'm not really sure how to teach him that part.

Once he got pretty good at using the potty for #1, I started getting frustrated that he continued using his diaper for #2. So we resorted to bribes. Eddie is currently obsessed with the movie Cars. Even though he already has two McQueens, we decided that the best bribe would be another one.

We bought a blue McQueen and kept it in the closet. Every day, I would remind Eddie that all he had to do to get a new blue McQueen was to do you-know-what in the potty. I even resorted to telling him that blue McQueen was bored in there, just waiting for him to do his duty so he could come out and play. Finally on Sunday, when it was obvious that Eddie needed to go, but refusing to do so (and even claiming that he wanted us to take blue McQueen back to the store), I got the car out of the closet so he could see it, and demanded that he sit on the potty. About ten seconds later, we heard "I did it!"

Since then, Eddie and blue McQueen have been inseparable. He went to church with us. He took a bath with Ed. And he slept with Eddie and his other two McQueens last night.

So even though potty training isn't going as quickly as I would like, we are making progress. And, if nothing else, it has led to some amusing conversations with Eddie (which I won't post… because I'm sure he would hate me for it later).