Potty Time

For the last week we've been trying to potty train Reuben, and it's been a bit of an adventure. With Greta, we ultimately had to wait until she was ready, and once she was, everything was done in a day. With Reuben it's been a little different.

A week ago we decided we might as well give it a shot. We tried a few months ago, but he clearly wasn't ready. Now, with our Manitoba trip coming soon, we thought it would be great if Reuben was somewhat trained before we left so that we don't have to take as many diapers with us (space in the Matrix is a bit of a commodity with three kids).

The first day, we managed to catch him in 'pushing mode' first thing in the morning, and had our first successful poop on the potty. Unfortunately the pee part didn't work out so well. Over the next 3 days his potty success rates were probably 2 in 12 with pee, and about 2 in 4 with poop...not great, and I was getting a little tired of cleaning up the floor! Sandra and I thought that maybe he wasn't ready, so we decided it would be best to remove the potty for a while.

Well...when we went to get the potty, what do you know, it's full of pee...more than we had seen Reuben pee in it yet! This left us a little baffled as the potty had been in the basement and we hadn't been supervising Reuben. We had to question Greta as to whether or not the pee was hers! So...now that he was playing games with our minds, we decided to persist.

In the evening of about day 5, I knew Reuben really had to go badly, so I took him to the potty (which was in the bathroom at the time...normally it had been in the kitchen/dining/living room area). He seemed to resist it, so instead I plunked him on the toilet, which I hadn't done yet. What do you know? He looks into the toilet and pees...no hesitation. "Okay then. If that's what you want, that's what I'll give you". So for the next day or two, putting him on the toilet every 2-3 hours seemed to work successfully...no pee on the floor. Hurray!!!

Yesterday, he started putting up a real fuss about getting on the toilet, so I told him I'd give him a candy if he peed in the toilet. Sure enough, he turns around, runs straight into the bathroom, and pees! So, now we're using the bribing method. Sometimes he goes on his own, or tells us he needs to go, but other times we're still forcing him to sit every few hours. It's still hit or miss as to whether his diaper is dry after he sleeps, but for his waking hours the end is in sight. Here's looking forward to only one child in diapers!

Reuben

The big brother 'potty trainee'!