The Big Prize.

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Cashew nuts are consumed every time we ask Roman to use the potty - or rather, remind him to use it. We're getting to the stage where he's very eager to use it by himself and today he went outside and on a trip to the shops and remained dry throughout his trip - and for a good hour after.

We're both starting to notice when he might be needing a wee - he crosses his legs, stands still and sometimes will be very quiet. When he is showing these behaviours we strongly guide him towards the potty, don't take our eyes off him (I don't anyway) and I encourage him to drink. Once he's on the potty I make a low hissing noise, imitating the noise of a pee :P. In the past this cue has made him go, these days it's a mixture of being reminded to go, getting to the potty on time and then to sit on the potty for a while. 

Every book I read tells me I should be prepared to keep him on the potty for 10-20 minutes. He won't even sit for 10-20 seconds. When he gets up either Bryan or I have to show him there's 'no pee pee' in the potty or remind him that he's not quite done yet. He'll happily sit back down - if he's loaded with his 'Gerald' book and cashew nuts. Well, today, he did the biggest pee ever in the potty. Bryan made me take pictures - I won't share them here ;).

We rewarded his potty usage with a lollipop - and he seemed pretty pleased with his 'prize.' I've always been against rewarding children for doing something that is, you know, a basic human bodily function outside of a nappy but my goodness me I was just so happy he'd peed somewhere other than our carpet that I would have bought him a pony or a yacht at this point. I felt like he understood what this whole thing has been about and I feel as though we've done it without coercing him into it or scarring the poor boy for life - I've met many children who are afraid of toilets and potties because of traumatizing potty training experiences and didn't want the same for my child/ren.

I can't really remember my own potty training experiences but from the fragments I do remember it was mostly a fairly relaxed and happy affair. It was a gradual process for me and it's the same for Roman. Slowly we're getting to where we'd like to be as a family and for our toddler. I am happy.

To The Loo.

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It doesn't look like it but today was challenging. 

A lot of tantrums, hair pulling (mine, by him), tears, defiance's and a refusal to go for a nap. Now that I am sitting here writing all this it seems like nothing but in all reality the minutes felt like hours. I found myself looking forward to bedtime and getting some reprieve from all his cheekiness. 

In one of his better moods he asked for my hand and led me to the bathroom. "Toilet," he told me and so I thought to myself, sure, let's try you on the toilet then. I fixed his turtle seat to our toilet seat, got him ready and plopped him on the seat. Where he stayed. 

He then started to act a little silly by throwing everything he could on the floor - that was until I realised he wasn't actually being silly and was just trying to get to the toilet roll so he could wipe. I was quite surprised to see how well he did with this to be honest and had a fit of giggles watching him mimic a very grown up thing - which, of course, set him off in a very adorable giggle fit of his own.

After he'd been sat there for a few minutes I figured he might get a bit bored sitting there with nothing to do and thus jump off the can and totally give up on going there instead of in his nappy so I retrieved his quiet book (made by my mum) from his room and he happily flicked through the fuzzy fleece pages, quite the thing. 

After some minutes of flicking through his book he threw everything on the floor and tried to get up from the seat. I wasn't expecting to see anything in the toilet bowl and was very amazed to see he'd peed in the toilet for the first time ever. When he saw the pee he shouted, very proud of himself, "BYE BYE PEE PEE!" and knocked the lid of the toilet down. I flushed, we had a little cheer and washed our hands - he loves this part of the toilet ritual. 

Formal toilet learning/training/whatever you call it hasn't started. We've been using the potty more and haven't really used the toilet at all - it was only today that he showed signs of wanting to use it. I'm just letting Roman lead the way and once we're done with his packet of disposable nappies we'll try him in underpants and see how it goes (if it doesn't work out, we have a back up supply of cloth nappies. I know. We're bad. I don't care. It seems to be working this way.)

There has been absolutely no pressure or stresses made on going to the loo or using a potty. I bought him a potty when he was around 9 months, have tried him on it now and then since then and well lately he's become more interested in using it. A few times he's been caught short and peed the carpet, but that's okay. It's all learning - for us and him respectively.