Elliot's really a big kid now

Elliot got potty trained about a week and a half ago.  I woke up late on a Saturday morning only to have Paul & Elliot announce to me that he was done with diapers and wearing underwear now.  He took to it fast and by day 3 there were no accidents.  The big test was sending him to school the following Tuesday (day 4) in his big boy undies.  He did perfect at school.  Later that day I asked Elliot at some point "Elliot, do you need to go potty?" and his reply was kind of an annoyed "Mom, can you stop saying that all the time?"  I thought about it a second and said "OK".  After all, he was doing great.  So from then on, he's been in charge and doing PERFECT.  I'm so proud of my big boy!  And man it is freeing after 5 1/2 years of having a child in diapers to be done!

We went out to celebrate at the new frozen yogurt place in the hood on Valentine's Day with his brother & best friend, Nona Grace

Elliot had chocolate with fruit loops on top

Elliot & Nona Grace

Elliot loves washing his hands every time he goes.  He has the best manners and etiquette

"POPPY!"

Elliot has become quite interested in the potty, or as he calls it "poppy", as of late. He likes to watch us go and he really likes to flush the toilet. Repeatedly. Whether it needs flushing or not. He got this hilarious book from his Aunt Sarah for Christmas and absolutely loves it. He is scared to sit on the big potty though, so I broke down and bought him a little one Thursday. He was so excited! I spiked his water cup with a little cherry limeade so he'd chug, chug, chug and set the boy up for success. He did indeed pee-pee on the "poppy" and him and Noah & I all celebrated cheering and dancing around.

Elliot then proceeded to run into the living room giggling, joyful and naked and drop a deuce on the chair. One second he's jumping up and down in the bathroom, the next he is gone and I hear Noah yelling at me what he did. DOH! Lesson learned for us both. Luckily, it was an easy clean up and he was very excited to flush it down the toilet. Three times.

I am under no delusions that he's going to instantly potty train, but it's a good first step. He basically wants to be naked and sit on it all day, then get up, then sit on it, then get up. He gets mad when I dress him and cries for the "poppy". So I'll have to figure out how to do this and get some advice from some veteran trainers out there on how to encourage his interest and capitalize on it, without letting him run naked all day.

The best picture I could capture afterwards was him checking out what he did. I'll have to get a cute one of him sitting on it soon, as that photo is a rite of passage for every kid :)

Oh yeah, I haven't posted about it, but.........

Noah is fully potty trained. He actually trained fast when I got firm and did boot camp. It was a few days before New Year's Day that I told him his diapers were gone and he had to wear underwear. It only took a few days and he learned it wasn't pleasant to go in underwear. And that was it! I swear he was so stubborn, I didn't think it'd work. For a few weeks we were still astonished everytime he went potty by himself. We didn't post because we were sure we'd jinx it (as we had LAST time I posted months ago about him pooping in the potty). So yep, he finally did it. I have to say it is the best parenting accomplishment EVER!

Paul the plumber

Twice in one week Noah has managed to clog the toilet. And no, this has nothing to do with his GI bug he's been fighting for almost a week. Last Thursday night we had our babysitter come over at 5:45. We were going to do an early dinner out alone after a stressful week and let the sitter feed the kids and get them ready for bed.

Well I was JUST getting ready to leave and say my goodbye's and meet Paul out when Noah yells from the bathroom that the water was coming out of the toilet. He filled it with a TON of toilet paper! I frequently remove toilet paper from the bathroom and apparantly I should just do that all the time. Paul came home and unclogged it and mopped up the floor quickly before we headed out. Noah wants to do everything by himself, but I convinced him he HAS to let me help him wipe from now on. And since then, he's been good about calling out for help.

Well today I was upstairs and came down to find Noah naked from the waist down (not uncommon as he doesn't get himself dressed after going potty). I tell him to go get his undies and pants. He brings me his pants, but not undies. He keeps saying "But, I don't see them." He obviously had gone potty so I went to the bathroom and they weren't there. He just stared at the toilet and gave me a "look". Then came the confession. He flushed them down the toilet.

Paul is in there right now with a wire hanger all straightened out trying to fish out the Diego undies as I type this.

Is this normal?

ETA - Paul did not retrieve said Diego underwear. I have to call the real plumber tomorrow. This is a little embarrasing.

"That snake won't bite me, he got no teeth!"

Today was a BIG day in the Thomas house. B-I-G! Today, Noah.......wait for it........

WENT POO-POO IN THE POTTY!

I may or may not have went a little ballistic congratulating him, calling Paul literally from the bathroom, and snapping pictures of him flushing said poop (yeah, I will spare you and not post that picture). Is that normal? I was really excited.

I thought Noah was going to potty train early when I first got him to pee on the potty last summer. But, he really had no interest. He'd pee if you put him on it, but also in his dipe. He didn't really get it. Still, he won't tell me often, but I try to put him on every couple of hours and usually his diaper is barely wet and he pees a lot. Just the past week, his overnight diapers are less wet as well and he goes a lot when he wakes up. For quite some time I've been talking about the potty, without pushing him. I've tried to motivate him by buying Thomas underwear. Those were uncomfortable and he won't leave them on more than 30 minutes. Then we found he liked boxer briefs underoos. I bought 7 pairs this week in preparation for a little potty training boot camp with date yet TBD.

Also, for a few weeks I've told him daily when he poops that if he does it on the potty I'll buy him "M's & M's". I figured a little bribery, er I mean positive reinforcement, would help.

Well today I was on the phone with Hudson's mom and he started doing his thing. Usually I ask him to go on the potty and he gets all upset "NO MAMA, NO!" and wants to be alone. But, today I didn't bother. I just asked him if he was done so I could hurry and change him and take him to play with Hudson. He kept telling me he wasn't done and then he asked to go on the potty. So he sat on it and I encouraged him to do it and HE DID IT!!!!!!!!

We (OK, I) went nuts! He had to flush the "nake" (snake in Noah talk) down the toilet and say bye-bye. The "nake" thing comes from him going in the bath a few weeks ago and being scared to death, crying in a panic asking me to get the "nake" out of the tub. He was SO scared. I assured him it was poop, not a snake and it had no teeth so it couldn't bite him. It was a one time incident and I think he truly thought it was a snake. We've talked about it a lot since, and how fun it'll be to put the snake in the toilet and get M's & M's (Noah talk for M&M's).

Paul brought home some M's & M's (and several more fun packs to use for a while to keep with the bribery/positive reinforcement). I'm so proud of Noah!

Oh and when Paul got home and went upstairs to get changed, he was going to the bathroom. Noah walked in on him and said "Good job Daddy! I so proud of you!" I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to let him pick out what underoos he wants to wear and go with it. Wish us continued success!