potty training - day one!

Well, we survived the first day of Charlie potty training. I'll put it into perspective for you. I bought seven pairs of big boy underwear. (Yes, I debated on buying more. And, no, I'm not using pull-ups.) We started training about 8:15 am and by noon we were on pair #9. Umm...yeah. Needless to say, by 1:00, I was ready to put a diaper on the kid and but him down for a nap!

The technique I am using is to take him every 20 minutes to sit on the potty. He has to sit there atleast a couple of minutes. If nothing, then we get up, set the timer and on to the next thing. This proved challenging in that it's next to impossible to pull a two year old, who's addicted to Sesame Street, away from the TV. I just had to bite the bullet and turn the TV off after it went off and before anything else interesting came on. But, this also led to an accident on the carpet in his room. It was turning out that Charlie was peeing more than the intervals I was taking him and they never fell at the same time. So puddles later...still no success. Daniel and I heard a few tinkles tonight after dinner but not a bladder emptying. From what I understand, Daniel got his share of puddles tonight while I ran to the grocery store.

Charlie has gotten accustomed to the timer in that when he hears it he says, "potty" and runs to push the button to turn it off. He's still a little reluctant to sit on the potty but we're making progress. I tried using a potty chair on the toilet but decided against it because I noticed that if he did actually pee, it wouldn't go in the potty so he's training to sit on the toilet with no aids. That took alot of convincing! Charlie's fine with it now.

I had it all planned out much better than what actually happened but isn't that how it always works? I had the potty chart, stickers and an Elmo potty book. I talked all big about the big boy underwear. Charlie could have cared less. When it got challenging to get him to sit on the potty, I brought out the M&M bribe. (Never thought I would be thankful for the sugar stash from Grandma & Grandpa.) That worked for a few times. I've read many a book today and sang many a song just to keep him on the potty and I still got nothing...

So, I'm off to wash some more undies. On to the next day...