Potty Training!

There are lots of photos and events of the last few months that need to be documented on the blog, but first, an important developmental milestone -- potty training! For the past 2+ weeks Ian has been diaper-free pretty much all his waking hours. Hooray!

We were trying to be relaxed about potty training, but were scheduled to start getting nervous around June if he didn't make progress on his own, since he has to be potty training to start his new school in August. But a few weeks ago we started hearing from school that he was keeping his diaper dry through the day (one of the goals he knew he had to reach to start wearing underpants to school). So that weekend we went diaper-free. There were several accidents throughout the weekend, but he also had some major successes (first poop in the potty, most importantly). So that Monday he wore underwear to school and has been doing great -- he went those first several days with no accidents, and has had only three at school in the three weeks since. He has also started using public toilets (thanks to Erin, Iansitter extraordinaire) and being able to anticipate when he needs to go with plenty of time in most cases. It's really gone quite smoothly. There was one day when it got overwhelming, and he didn't want to try the potty anymore. We let him wear diapers for a few hours and then he asked to put his underpants back on and he's been good from there.

I'm particularly happy that we were able to get through all this without needing rewards -- in general we're trying to let him be motivated by intrinsic rewards (like wearing underpants to school), but were prepared to resort to stickers, etc., if we moved into the summer with no progress. At least for this boy, it seems like using the potty is a reward in itself -- standing up and aiming into the toilet is fun, and he's quite proud of what he produces. He generally wants us to leave ("I need a moment to myself") when he's in the bathroom but calls us back in for viewing when he's done ("Mommy come see my GIANT poop!"). One of the keys to his early success was Richard Scarry's Things That Go book -- he was content to sit in the bathroom looking for Goldbug on each page and waiting for something to happen.

Although we give Ian most of the credit for accomplishing this milestone on his own, I'm pretty sure this spectacular piece of parenting/uncling was also key (if you're one of those people who thinks parents should teach their children to behave appropriately at all times, please skip this so you won't think less of us):