Potty Training Boot Camp: Day 1

All of you know how hard we have struggled with Teagan and the potty. He is 3 1/2 now and frankly he's just too big to be in diapers anymore. He is extremely "strong-willed" and beats to his own drum. So we've been building it up for the last few weeks that when he runs out of diapers, he is all done with them. And while we are at it, we are going to potty train Tate (2 years old) too.

(PS. no this is not my kid in the pic below. I thought it was cute and found it when I googled images for potty training)

Preparation: 

• MENTAL- Had to prepare myself mentally that this may totally suck and I need to be happy, make it fun and be positive no matter what happens. ENDURE to the END!
• Talk A LOT about it when ever we could. 
• We let Teagan pick out his own potty, which he actually picked out a plain toilet seat that fits on the regular toilet. 
• We've been telling him for the last month that he when he runs out of nappies (diapers), that we aren't going to buy anymore and that it's time to start using the big boy potty. 
• A side note on this... so many people kept telling me to let him go at his own time, but I honestly don't think this was working for him because #1- He is smart and he is going to use up as much slack as we give him and #2- He is definitely ready, he is just plain ol' defiant.
• Bought Pull-Up Training pants with Lightening McQueen and let the boys try them on.
• Got Big-Boy-Underwear for both boys to see, and try on different fits to see which ones they like the most. (Even though Teagan was hesitant of doing this, I didn't give him the option to say 'no'. He just went with it, despite his last 6 months of complete protesting anything to do with the big boy potty process).
• GOLDEN NUGGETS: Bought some cheap toy planes, helicopters, and cars at KMart to let the boys see them . They were never allowed to play with them. We just kept telling them what they have to do to get them.
• Went to the library and checked out potty training books for me and the boys so we could read them each night. We started reading them a few days before boot camp started.
• Watched the Huggies potty training DVD, looked online at what others did and came up with a plan that worked for my two boys.
• Last night was the last night the boys get to wear a nappy (diaper) ever again. We made sure to tell them that before bedtime. And we made it sound exciting!!!

Tailoring "The Plan" for each boy:
I have two very different little boys to train at the same time.

1. Teagan- Teagan is 3 1/2 years old. As I mentioned above and I will say it again... He is STRONNNNGGGG-WILLED!!!! We are always looking for information on how to work "with" this kid. If you are familiar with the color code personality types, he is a RED. He is motivated by power and recognition. He likes to work towards something and is motivated by his achievements and is VERY competitive.
2. Tate- Tate just turned 2 years old. According to the personality code, he would be a YELLOW. He is fun loving and caring and just wants to have fun. He loves to be the center of attention and he loves praise. If it's not fun, then he doesn't want to do it. He will do anything that his big brother does. So if we can get Teagan on the band wagon, then Tate shouldn't be too far behind.

Supplies on hand: 

• Butcher paper to make a potty chart.
• Markers to let the kids color and decorate them
• Sharpy to write their names on it really big
• Stickers to put on the potty chart.
• Chocolate Chips.
• Potato Chips.
• Corn Chips
• Crackers
• Cookies/Oreos
• Ziplock bags
• Water cups
• Lots of fruit and vege's to snack on through out the day
• Hand Sanitizer

Well, TODAY (Monday) was the big day! The biggest things I'm trying to keep in mind for potty boot camp is:

1. Happy, Positive, Encouraging Good Attitude (Remember, no one has fun when it's stressful)
2. Make it FUN
3. Make the kids VERY involved in ever step for preparing
4. Be involved as their mom so that I can encourage, cheer lead, and recognize.
5. IMMEDIATE recognition and rewards. 
6. Start on a week day when you can be in your normal routine instead of a weekend when different things happen.

We started the day out by:

1. Getting up and taking off their last diaper EVER!
2. PEP TALK: Talking about it and telling them how big they are going to grow today because of how big of a step this is. Told them we are going to have a Potty Party today. (Any word with "party" in it makes Teagan excited). 
3. Teagan wasn't too savvy to sit on the potty yet, so we started to prepare for the big day with the kid's help.
4. After we took the diapers off, I left them off for a bit. We started off by getting out the papers for their potty charts. I let them decorate it as I talked about what the papers are for.
5. ***Tate peed on the floor*** Clean up on aisle 2. 
6. Then we opened up all of the "Golden Nugget Toys" and put them into two separate Ziplock bags (one for Tate and one for Teagan). On the bags we drew a toilet, a little person peeing and then some poop. Very professional! ;) This got the boys interested and excited to get them.
7. Got out all the treats the boys would love eating but I only give them sparingly. (See list above)
8. Put single serving amounts of each in a plastic ziplock bag.
9. Got out a water cup for each of them.
10. Got out potty training pants to see
11. Layed out the rules.

The Rules:

1. You get one sticker for your potty chart every time you SIT on the potty
2. You get one chocolate chip every time you SIT on the potty
3. You get one treat in the bag every time you get 5 stickers on your chart. Then we put 5 stickers on the bag of treats and counted them.  **When you use up 5 stickers for a treat trade in on the chart, I just marked each one with a Sharpie by numbering them and counting with the boys.
4. You get to pick one toy from the toy bag when you pee or poop in the potty.
5. You get 3 stickers for each glass of water you drink. (I gave them 4oz cups of water)

I had fruit and yogurt ready for breakfast to eat during the process. Cut up strawberries, grapes, pineapple and Go-gurts to suck down.

Tate was the first one to want to sit on the potty. We cheered for him and then he immediately got 1 chocolate chip and one sticker. He learned how to get a chocolate chip very quickly and then he wanted to sit on it 2 more times right away. When Teagan kept asking for a treat and I kept telling him how to get it, he scoffed a bit but saw that Tate was getting things so quickly that he walked in and sat down on the toilet and gruffly said, "I WANT A TREAT TOO!" So, he went and sat down and got a chocolate chip and a sticker.

Since Teagan is RED, I had to remember not to push him otherwise he retreats. So, it was helpful that Tate wanted to first. Tate thought it was fun to get some chocolate and loves to play with stickers. So it was "FUN" for him. Teagan was reluctant to sit on the potty again. So I went and sat down on the potty and said, "See I just got a sticker". I did it again right after and said, "I just got 2 stickers." I did it again and said, "I just got 3 stickers and only need to do it 2 more times for a treat."

Ahh.... Ok. So this clicked with him finally and then I had him begging me to sit on the toilet for chocolate chips and stickers. Alright!!! We are making progress! Then after he did it again he asked, "So, can I have a toy now?" I told him he needed to pee or poo in the toilet and he scoffed a bit. Then he sat on the toilet 5 times to get his treat out of the treat bag. I let him pick out a treat and he kept looking at me like, "I can really eat this right now for breakfast?" He was even cautious how much he ate of it. I told him that he could eat all of it (because I'd already portioned it out). Well, this was VERY motivating to him. He went and sat down a 6th time and PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE came out this time! Oh my gosh! Is this really true? We've been fighting him for months! We called his daddy at work and gave him a chocolate chip, a sticker AND a toy! He was so proud of himself. He kept asking, "Are you so impressed with me mommy?"

When Tate saw him doing it, then Tate wanted to do it more. We literally did the potty sitting for about 2 1/2 hours between the two of them. They were very excited to earn something each time. I'm excited to say that Teagan even earned a total of EIGHT toys and it's not even noon yet. He pushed out every drop of pee he could. I gave him a toy even if there was hardly anything. I wanted him to know that every effort counted. Tate thought the funnest part was pulling off the toilet paper and then flushing.

Tate earned 10 stickers and is still working towards his toy. He still isn't quite sure how it all works, but at least he is going through the motions and is still having fun.

After Teagan got the peeing part down we went over the 4 steps of pottying:

1. Go Potty
2. Wipe
3. Flush
4. Wash your hands

Since they weren't really pottying and wiping a lot I used hand sanitizer since we were going so often. After the 2 1/2 hours they were ready to rest and watch a movie. They'd been snacking on their breakfast fruit and yogurt all morning (and along with the potty treats). So finally it is time for resting/nap time. During this time I will set up a schedule with Teagan on when/how often he will be sitting on the potty (i.e. when he wakes up, at snack time, at lunch time, at resting/nap time, at PM snack time, before dinner and 2 times before bed). This basically works out to be every 2 hours thru the day.

Mid-Day: Naptime
We had about 5 more potty 'sits' right before naptime. Teagan peed once more and earned his 9th toy. Tate still just thinks it fun to sit, get toilet paper and flush.  We had an hour break in between all the potty time and the movie and found that both boys had peed in the training pants. Maybe I should set the timer for every 30 minutes right now. Will start doing that with Teagan. Thank goodness Steffan is being good playing to himself! I fed Steffan when the movie started and held him a lot in between helping the boys on and off the potty.

Tate pooped in his pull up pants about 5 minutes after I had him try to go on the potty.

About 30 min after Teagan tried to go on the potty I had him try again and he had also peed again in the training pants. (sigh) This is going to be a long couple of weeks. PERSISTENCE PREVAILS! (right?)

***Tate pees on the floor again*** Go figure.
***Let Teagan run around with only a shirt on, then he peed a little bit before he realized it wasn't going into anything and he hurried and yelled... "Mom, I have to go to the bathroom!" (Progress!)

Night Time:
We were asked to come over to another family's home in our ward for dinner and Family Home Evening. Teagan's friend Micah was having his birthday and since they play so well together, his family asked us over for the birthday dinner. Well, because of all the sugar and candy the boys ate through the day, it was an awful visit from the Green's. Teagan and Tate (mostly Teagan) were completely out of control and unruly. I'm rethinking the treats for tomorrow. But what can I do to keep them motivated.

Status of Day 1?
Success and Failure. We made large strides in the potty world. = Success! Broke my spirits with how the night ended. = Failure.

Stay Tuned for Day 2.