Taisei Buffet

Potty Log

[warning: the post contains lots of gory details about potty training!]

No, not a log in the potty, mind you. ;) This is about Taisei's road to becoming an adult. At least in the potty department. I'm so glad it wasn't as gross of a process as I had originally feared.

San Jose:
For the first part of our Christmas trip back home, I was too chicken to support Wami in her potty training with Taisei. So we put diapers on when we went places. But Wami persisted, and finally we decided to go for one whole day. His biggest obstacle for most of the trip was that he didn't feel comfortable using unfamiliar toilets, especially in the public. The first day, we took off his diaper in the morning at 10 o'clock. He refused to go to the bathroom all day. We didn't put on a diaper until bedtime and he never had an accident. This means he held it the entire day! Does that count as potty training? Probably not. The good news is that when we got home and finally got ready for bed, he used the toilet! So technically, it was a day without an accident.

The next day, we kept with the routine. This time, he went number 2 in the toilet. Woohoo - first time! (and it was a big sucker too!) He was so excited about it, he ran around telling everyone "unchi shita!" (I pooed!)

The third day, he went to the potty standing up all by himself while he was being watched by Aaron and Emily (on the Temple trip day). The standing up part was a first (and a last to this day). We wouldn't have known he had gone except that Adele saw him going and reported it to her daddy. He even moved the stool from the toilet to the sink and washed his hands afterward. Unfortunately, he did have an accident shortly afterward. We wouldn't have noticed that either, had Aaron not heard Taisei whisper "uh oh."

Sunday, he almost held it all day again until he had an accident at the Adaniya's place (sorry!). But he made up afterward by copying Nathan and going no. 1 while standing. Woohoo!

Monday, he had one accident at the beach, while the rest of us were kayaking. Luckily, my mom really is a super grandma and doesn't mind dealing with that kind of stuff. Later that evening, he went no. 1 (sitting) at Ariake Sushi.

During the trip, we had tons of progress. The biggest thing was getting him in the mindset that diapers are a thing of the past. It helps that he loves his cartoon underwear. The other big skill he learned was to hold it. And I mean, hold it for HOURS.

Salt Lake City:
New year's day was a big mess. We had a party at the Jone's house, where all the kids drank tons of Capri Sun. He's not used to drinking that much and ended up having about 4 accidents before we left. The root of the problem was that he was refusing to use the toilet. Partly he was having too much fun, but mostly he just didn't like to pull his pants down and use the toilet. We were patient and kept persisting in the following week.

This past week has been wildly successful. So far, he has not had an accident for five straight days. In order to maintain that streak, there was one day during a dog walk to the park where he needed to go and ended up going on a tree outside. But the important thing is that he told us and he didn't have an accident! Yesterday, he actually told us that he had to go and led us to the bathroom. Today, he went by himself without telling us. As he's pulling up his underwear and pointing into the toilet, he said　“ママ！おしっこ出た～！見てー。黄色！” (Translated: "Mamaaa! Osshiko deta! Mite - kiiro” = "Mom! I peed! Look - it's yellow!")

Todo:
He's so close!! We still have just a few more hurdles to get past. His no. 2's take time, so sometimes he prefers to wait til he has on his bedtime diaper to do it. This ends up keeping him up at night until he's done, pushing his bedtime further back than we'd like. Secondly, we're too scared to not put on a diaper for bedtime. I know we'll have to do it eventually. But when he's sleeping nearly 12 hours a night sometimes, I don't know if there's any real hope that he can make it all night.

posted by Jerin at 12:52 PM