Potty Power

Have I really sunk this low? Has it gotten so bad that I go over a week without writing a blog post and then when I finally write one I resort to bathroom humor?

Apparently I have.

My sweet little mischievous Ryan is 3 1/2. When we received Ryan a mere 12 months ago, he pottied and poopied in the toilet. We came home and he didn't. No surprise, this happens to most toddlers just adopted. But a year later and we were no closer to that Potty Trained Goal and I was becoming frustrated.

(Lucky for you, Ryan just had his 12 month post placement visit last week so I'll be including a bunch of photos we took to send to China.)

Sure the boy can read but he couldn't pee in a toilet. Of course I was frustrated. (No, he really can't read. But doesn't he look smart-- and cute-- holding that book?) You have to understand, I'm pretty laid back when it comes to potty training. I've learned the hard way that they ain't gonna pee in a toilet until they're darn good and ready. But Preschool was looming in the not so distant future and being potty trained was a must. I decided that potty training need to be jump started.

(You would think Gauge would be a positive role model, or at the very least exhibit some positive peer pressure. No such luck.)

So about a week ago, I decided that "today was the day" and I put Ryan in a pull up and began to set the timer on the microwave for 20 minutes. Every 20 minutes he peed on cue and his pull up remained dry. After about an hour and half, we moved to 30 minutes. When the timer went off and I took Ryan to the bathroom, his pull up was wet. I was beginning to wonder if he had some bladder issue, maybe his bladder was mini sized. Or maybe it was just too easy to pee in a pull up. Time to pull out the underwear.

(We needed a photo of just Ryan and I but he has started winking whenever the camera comes out. So I started making silly faces with him in hopes of getting something that didn't make him look like he'd just had a stroke.)

Yeah, that thought made us cringe, but I learned with both Julia and Jenna that sometimes pull-ups enable them to not go in the toilet. So that very afternoon, he started wearing panties, uhm, I mean underwear. (Sorry Ry, but Momma is so used to saying "panties" that I hope I don't scar you for life, or at least in the school locker room.)

He had one accident soon after putting his underwear on but it was only a very small one and he was dry after that. In fact, the next day I took Ryan and Emma to Lowe's with me and as I was almost there, I realized that Ryan as still in panties underwear. But the trip was uneventful, in that he didn't leave a Hansel and Gretel pee trial throughout the store anyway. Since then, he's done pretty well. He's had a few accidents. Once last week when I took him to the gym's Kid Club (child care)-- he didn't know where to go. The other time was at my brother's house. He was outside playing and perhaps too busy to stop and go inside to pee.

(My absolute most favorite picture of Ryan and I together. I love it so much I had a 5x7 made.)

I would consider his potty training mission to be pretty successful. He still needs a pull up at night and has had a few accidents at nap time, but that's to be expected. Five down and one to go. (Oh, I made a pun!) Now if Emma would just realize that the potty chair is for peeing or pooping and not her royal throne.