The potty train

We began potty training Ryan on our vacation. We knew that no matter what age we started potty training that Ryan would be difficult for a day until he got used to the idea. We just know our kid. It's the way he is with everything (with long sleeves and short sleeves, with new foods, with new people..change takes lots of time for Ryan).

So the process began on Saturday morning with the changing from the nighttime diaper to a visit at the potty and a Pull-Up (I have since decided White Cloud disposable underwear are just as good and cheaper and that Pull-Up overnights are also good, but regular Pull-Ups aren't worth the cost). He went pee on the potty right away, but protested when it came time to put on the Pull-Up. We went down stairs and showed him that there were no more diapers for him, just for Tim. (This was part of the plan because we knew if he saw even one of his diapers he'd cry for it all day).

Ryan did well on Saturday. He peed on the potty when asked, but refused while at a birthday party. We didn't force him because we want this to be a positive experience for him. He did ask often for a diaper, but we just kept telling him we didn't have anymore his size and that he was a big boy and got to wear Pull-Ups and that Timothy wasn't big enough to wear them yet.

On day two, we put together the potty road. It's a big poster that has places for Ryan to place stickers each time he goes potty. He gets one colored sticker (red, blue or green) for going pee, two silver ones for going poop and a gold one for telling us he has to go and going to the potty. At different intervals, Ryan gets a potty prize (we've heard parents do this for every pee or poop, but we'd be broke if we did this). His first potty prize was a hot wheels car and airplane set and the second was a Diego book and sweatshirt (he LOVES Diego right now). The last big star he gets to go spend an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese.

Ryan holding his "Diego Prize" in front of his road of potty training poster.

On our trip to Vince and Kris' house, Ryan did really well, though he wanted Vince to help with the potty stuff and not mom and dad. Vince wasn't so sure about this, but did a great job with Ryan. So far, Ryan has managed lots of colored stickers, one set of silver stickers (if we would have had the chart in Manch he would have two more of the silver ones) and zero gold ones. He hasn't asked for a diaper since that first day.


While the disposable underwear are more expensive, we go through them more slowly because he wears maybe two in a day versus six or eight diapers in a day. He's learned the steps to going potty fairly well... pull down pants, go potty, put on pants, wash hands, get sticker. We're happy with Ryan's progress so far. We've only had one accident in which he refused to sit on the potty and then peed all over the floor. He cried, but we assured him that everyone has accidents and if he had just sat down a little faster there would never have been an accident.


The potty training continues!