Potty Training

(This is older, I forgot to post it.)

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of cleaning up poop. I promise that I will eventually stop talking to you about poop. This is where I am in my life. The funny thing is that you as a parent are going through poop right now too. When it comes to children we have potty issues.

Hooray for Elmo!

I got Potty chairs for the boys when they were about 18 months old, and they went on them a couple of times and thought they were such big boys, but neither would commit. So we borrowed “Elmo’s Potty” from a friend and suddenly there was more interest than before.

Ditch the Diapers.

The other day, about a year after the original potty chair purchases, I finally decided that I am not going to buy anymore diapers. I am not spending another penny on them. I went and stocked up on boys underpants. You know 10 pairs of boy’s underpants for $50, where you can get 25 pair of girl’s underpants for $5.

Now is potty time.

Well, being a mother of two very, very different boys, this is a very interesting experience. I have one who is generally really easy going and another who is generally really high maintenance. They are rarely both “ easy” at the same time. Thankfully they usually alternate and it is only one being difficult at a time.

Don’t get me wrong they have their moments.

Ha! Ha! Ha! You would think that going potty on a potty chair would be a simple easy experience. Well General Easy Going decides to be Jealous of Lt. High Maintenance. He already holds his pee-pee and he has fewer accidents than Lt. Maintenance and thinks it is funny to dump over Lt. High Maintenance's potty chair when he does make it.

Come on guys!

I thought leaving the underpants around their ankles would be easier for them to get undressed and dressed by themselves. But I guess I was so very wrong. General doesn’t like to have his on at all to go potty, so he finally kicks out of them and they are across the floor… in the potty that just got splashed all over the floor because he forgot to aim while he was trying to fling his underpants off. Meanwhile Lt. pooped in his pants before he even got them part way down.

My washing machine broke!

My ten pair of underpants that two boys are sharing are not lasting very long and I am trying to keep them clean so they have them to wear… and the washing machine is broken. This potty training is turning out to be really expensive.

All this to save some time and money on changing diapers…

So while they are going potty on the potty chair it is really on the floor and they are not having accidents in their pants, but they are still getting wet… I just have to laugh! I think it is really pretty funny. I even think it is funny that the Beach scent that I recently put in, will forever remind me of the potty training days and how fun drama can be.

Thank Heavens there is a drain at the end of the tunnel

Eventually their little heads will click around the concept of going potty all the time in the potty and even better eventually by themselves.

I think it is important to remember that no matter how much stink there is in our lives, we can always laugh and enjoy the experiences. We can enjoy the journey to the light and get there faster or we can begrudge it and it will be a long sad road.

And that my friend is the wax of life.

Enjoy right now

Cara Harker

Poop! Poop! Poop!

Potty training is getting a tiny bit annoying to me. I decided that I never seem to find details that help me, so I am going to spill it all and just be blunt about everything. :) In hopes of helping someone like myself.

I am really trying hard to be super patient. Mothers of singletons have it hard. I cannot imagine how Jon and Kate did it with their SIX! Well we saw most of it on TV, but still.

I am trying really hard to hunker down and do this. The bad thing is that I started bribing the boys early on with potty treats... the only way Sargent Potty would have anything to do with it at all.

I really regret this now.

I am going to call my sons General Potty and Sargent Potty for a while.
General Potty is the type of personality who if Sargent Potty is doing something he gets kind of jealous (usually the observer who wants to do things perfectly before he tries them) and doesn't want Sargent Potty to show him up. I don't know if this is just in regards to potty right now or if he is tired of Sargent doing everything first...

Sargent Potty is a go getter with a personality that is out of this world. From birth he was a grunter and always making noise, and did everything months in advance and before General. Sargent is small... I hope he doesn't have little man syndrome! But like I said before he didn't want to have anything to do with the potty for a long time.

General is sleeping without peeing, but Sargent is not. Sargent will start to pee and stop it until he is on the potty. General does not... although today he started pooping in his pants and hurried to the toilet to finish. And on Sunday as tired as they both were and all the accidents they had General was holding it and jumping up and down to get to the potty while he was in the tub and then again a short time later. They are becoming aware. It is fantastic.

The last time we went to the zoo we got a book called "ZOO-POO". The boys LOVE this book and want to read it over and over and over again. Since they have really been more excited to go on the potty. When they are tired, they have WAY more accidents.

Today I decided that I would bribe them with something fun. We have a membership to the Hogle Zoo, so we go a lot. Since trying to sleep train we haven't been, but we generally do. They also have some new babies that arrived and will shortly arrive. The boys are very excited about this. I decided to tell them every day for a week that if they use the potty every time they can go to the zoo for as long as they want and do everything they want, which includes the train and carousel as many times as they want.

They got really excited and ran in to the potty. This might just work. I think it is why General decided to hold his poo in instead of finish in his pants as is his usual custom.

I think that I might be overloading them with change right now though... Sleep and Potty training at the same time. and they are already 2 and everything is already pretty rough on them to begin with as they learn and grow. Poor poopers. I sure do love them. I hope we all make it over the poop pile soon.

TTFN!
Cara :)

Nap Time

Nap time is getting much nicer here in our house and the boys are getting better at recognizing that it is nap time.

I love it that they are finally talking... and talking alot. The way they pronounce things is so stinking cute to me. "nap time" "sleep time" "Elmo potty" So Cute!! I wish you could hear it!

I have had a dilemma since we conceived the boys, it seems that pertinent information that I really need to find specifically for twins is never available or accessible.

I started using Dana Obleman's Sleep Sense (http://www.sleepsense.net/blog/) I really am happy with it... other than there is nothing available for twins who share the same room. It is working, just not as effectively as I am sure it works with a singleton.even older or younger siblings sharing a room isn't applicable.

When one of them is not listening and I leave the other starts screaming and is "punished" for what the other one did... not a very fair thing to have to do.

Nap times seems to be the easier time to get them to rest than bedtime. They store up and poop at 9:00 at night... did I mention that I am potty training too? sleep and potty train at the same time. and you never know when they really need to use the potty or if they are just trying to get out of sleeping... they are good at that. especially when you are being tag teamed. :)

So I am going to do my best to share my positive experiences in regards to twins and find the information that we need.

Cara