Gooooooooaaaal!

The other night I was laying with Tristan in his bed when he told me he had to go to the bathroom. I told him he could sit on the big potty in the morning if he wanted, but not tonight. He sat up, looked straight into my eyes and said, "Mom, it is time I start to use the big potty!" And there it was, he was on the path to potty training.

A few weeks ago, we got a cool looking non intrusive potty seat for our bathroom in anticipation of the potty training that was coming. After much reading, I found that he should probably start with something very easy for him to use himself, especially since we usually have our hands full. I was also on board with the theory of letting him pick his own seat to increase the "buy in" factor. The next morning came, and off Tristan and I went to the consignment store to find a cheap potty seat. I'm glad I brought him, because they only had one. It's the exact one I would have picked at the store. It was small, nice looking, had a nice place to keep wipes, and a soft seat to sit on. He sat down for two seconds, stood up and declared that he would never go potty on that. Okay, so over to Babies-r-us we drove. In the aisle of potties, there were many to choose from. I was ready to accept a lot of seats, Cars or Princesses, but I was not prepared for the ONLY one he wanted. It's shaped like a soccer ball and if he ever does enough in there at one time, it's supposed to yell, "Goooooooal!" Yikes!!

He has been so excited about this seat. He sits on it a bunch and pees right in front of it. He even takes wipes and cleans it everyday while proudly telling all of us how shiny it is. There was a new car staring at him from the towel rack for the last four days or so just waiting as a reward for Tristan using the potty. He wanted that car SO BAD! Tonight he did it!! Before bath he sat on his potty while we read a book to get his mind off concentrating so hard. He started to pee and got so excited that he couldn't finish. He jumped up, dumped his little potty bucket in the big potty, flushed, and jumped around yelling and cheering that he was going to get his new car! Once he got it and the next car went up in the rack, he returned to his seat right away with his eyes fixated on the new car. He said with the most determined face, "Mom, I sit here, pee, and I have to get that next car!"

By NO means is he potty trained, but it's a start. I thought about doing the three day and they are mostly potty trained deal... then I remembered that I have met myself and that really wouldn't fly with me. Then I remembered that Tristan is my kid and I KNOW it wouldn't fly with him. I can't imagine adding one more piece of laundry to my pile or more things to scrub during my day... not happening! We will use the pull-ups and take our time just like everything else we do. Tristan is a lot like me in that way. We like to ease into things. "Pulling the band-aid off quickly" might get the job done, but usually leave us more miserable than we really needed to be.



***Wrote this post a while ago and forgot to post it. Things are going great. He uses the potty about 5/6 times a day. It indeed says "Goooooal" and it thrills him every time. He used the potty at his Gymboree drop off class twice with a teacher, and tonight he finally got the guts to poop on the potty! Way to go Tristan!***