The journey begins

The fabulous potty training journey that is. I've been putting this milestone off for quite some time. Partly because Eli just doesn't care and I didn't feel like he was really ready, and mostly because I've just been too lazy to do it. I hate diapers, but it is easy. I've got a baby....that's been my excuse:) Well excuses aside, I figured at almost 3 1/2 it was high time we at least attempt this journey. Otherwise, there is a good chance Eli will be in diapers when he heads of to kindgergarten! Still wishing these kids would just know how to do this on their own at a magic age or something. I had a friend give me some tips and tell me that this was mommy-training.....so true!

So, with Brian home for 2 weeks for Christmas break, I figured we should give it a shot. I would have his extra help and might not totally lose my mind. I pretty much had no high expectations for Eli going into this. I was a nightmare to potty train, and Brian wasn't a whole lot better. I figured I'd get hit with a good dose of child payback.....another reason I've been putting it off. To add to my craziness, I got the wild idea to try to train both Eli and Kamdyn at the same time. She's almost two, so I figured we could at least give it a shot and see how she did. How awesome would it be if I could get them both out of diapers. Bonus for us! But, she didn't even last a whole day in training mode:) I just don't think she's quite ready, and I was in no mood to stress myself out or make her hate the potty in the process. In the 5 or so hours we tried with her, she had three accidents and no successful trips to the potty. Good news is, she hated when she got her panties wet, so maybe there's hope for her this summer sometime.

I let the kids pick out the panties/undies they wanted to wear and sat them on their potties (we borrowed a second one from a friend). Day one went pretty well, Eli went 2 times, and had one accident. I was hopeful for day two. On day two, he had 1 accident again went 3 times. Woo Hoo! Maybe he is getting it?? Then he got sick. So potty training came to a halt. And then we had a crazy weekend of Christmas stuff with family. So I just put it off for the weekend.

I started it back up and am happy to say that today will be day three (of our second go around). Eli really is doing pretty good. He averages about one accident a day (and pooped once too.....that's a whole other battle. Don't think we are going to win that one for a while). I think he may be getting it.....the only thing is that he has never once told me he needs to go potty. He will go on the potty, but only if I'm sitting him on there. So I don't know if he's just being lazy and waiting for me, or if he really doesn't know yet what it feels like when he has to potty. Every time he's gone, he's been sitting on the potty for 10 or 15 minutes. Oh well, doesn't matter to me. A success is a success in my book and I'm going to keep at it. One of these days he's bound to get it entirely on his own without mommy asking him every 10 minutes if he has to potty and every 20-30 minutes making him try despite his answer. Right?? He won't go off to kindergarten in diapers:) And our check book is already happier. We have hardly used any diapers this week.....just the ones at nap time and night time diapers at night. I will certainly be glad when this journey is behind me though.

.....And then it will be time to potty train Kamdyn:)

picking out his first pair of undies to wear.
(Parker had to have his little feet in this shot too:))