Potty Talk

Off in the distance, a small figure was peering from behind the downspout at the back of the house. "Jacob? Do you have to go poop?", Mommy asked. And Jacob turned away, head down, sad face, shoulders limp. "Jacob? Do you want to use the potty?", Daddy asked. "Yah. Yah. Elmo!", Jacob exclaimed as he turned back towards Mommy and walked briskly towards the stairs. "Elmo". "Elmo." And so he went to use the potty and he went poop but only after making noises that seemed poop-appropriate. "Eeeeee. Uuuuugh." We have a Sesame Street potty seat - hence Elmo. But Jacob also uses "Elmo" for his juice boxes and for going into the basement where the Elmo Restaurant lives. His diapers have not been dry or unsoiled by any means but he went from rejecting the potty entirely to using it about 8 times in the last few days. I thought he was getting ready when he started telling me at night before bed that he had pee in his diaper and wanted me to change him. Again, I love when Jacob knows that he has accomplished something. He smiles at me and giggles when he uses the potty.

Like EVERYTHING else in Matthew's world, potty-training was a battle. He was interested in the potty before he turned 2 years old but it wasn't until last summer when he was 3 and-a-half that I finally told him I wasn't going to diaper him anymore, except at night but those diapers were different because we called them night-night diapers. Those diapers faded away within a few months when he was dry through the night but we've probably had about a dozen accidents since then. Matthew told me once that he must have been so sweaty that the bed got wet and another time he said he woke up and somehow water had spilled on his pajamas. Hey I just change the sheets and put him back in bed. No questions asked. As long as he isn't peeing all over the house or on the front lawn...