P is for Potty Trained!

That's right, folks!  We have an official big boy - a kid who potties in the toilet and no longer wears a diaper!  I've been hesitant to write anything out of fear of jinxing it, but we're going on six days strong now, and with the exception of day one, he's had at most only one accident per day! 

It all started last Friday.  Being the Super Dad he is, Craig took the day off work to tackle day one of potty training himself.  We hyped "Brantley's Special Day" for a day or two prior and although Brantley didn't know everything that it entailed, he did know that it would start with a trip to Lamar's for a Daddy-Brantley doughnut date.  And boy was he excited!  (Holden still went to daycare.)

We'd been talking about potty training for awhile.  Brantley has seemed ready for a couple of months now, telling us each time he pooped and even peeing in his little potty chair on occasion before baths.  However,  we didn't want to compete with summertime, warm weather, and playing outside, so we decided to hold off until it was too cold to do anything but hang out indoors.

I was nervous and not quite sure what to expect.  Craig said a couple of months ago that he felt like potty training Brantley was going to be really easy.  A part of me agreed...and wanted to agree in hopes that Craig was right.  But another part of me knew better.  After all, I've heard horror stories about potty training and about how, for many parents, it's the hardest part of parenthood to that point.  Nonetheless, I kept an open mind and a positive attitude.

We used Lora Jensen's 3-Day Method, as suggested by Craig's sister.  She swore by it for all three of her kids - two of which were boys just slightly older than Brantley is now.  The method is all about positive reinforcement, encouragement, and praise.  You can't leave home and you have to focus on nothing but your potty-training child for three days straight.  The author has a lot of good ideas, but quite honestly, she doesn't say anything that isn't common sense.  I mean, of course you don't want to tell your kid going potty in their underwear is naughty!!
 
Anyway, Brantley had a few accidents with Craig on Friday, but to my surprise, by the time I got home from work Friday evening, he was consistently telling us when he needed to go potty!  Another accident on Saturday and another on Sunday, but mostly just successful trips to the toilet!  It's like he just got it!  Same story when he returned to daycare on Monday.  One accident Monday, one on Tuesday, but I'm happy to report, he went the entire day today without any accidents! 

He does seem a little nervous about the whole pooping thing, but we're six days in and he's gone on the toilet a total of five times (with one accident) so I'm gonna go ahead and call that a success!  What is it about kids being scared to poop on the toilet??

I keep thinking he's going to revert and refuse to tell us when he needs to go.  I mean, that was way too easy to just be over and done with, right?  But I also know that once we brought Brantley home from the hospital, things have been easy peasy, so why would this be any different?  Turns out, the hubs may have been right!

In one sense, I'm beyond happy about having only one child in diapers.  But, oddly enough, there is a part of me that's sad.  My first baby has graduated from the last thing that labeled him as "baby".  And this means he's going to start preschool soon, and then go to kindergarten, and then before we know it, he'll be headed to college.  This is just the start, it seems.  *Tear* 

It's a good thing two-year-olds in underwear are so cute! :)