It's a Potty Party

Today marked our first official foray into the world known as potty training. While I worked in several day care two year old rooms in college, potty training your own children is quite the different task. In the daycare setting, it seemed as if one simply followed the other, and there always seemed to be someone who knew what they were doing. Up until today, Luke has already been pretty consistent about peeing in the potty in the mornings and at various times during the day. He's a very reward driven child and loves getting a sticker for his efforts. Brody, on the other hand, could care less about stickers and has not been going potty at all.

It is for this reason and for the fact that I am over changing poopy diapers and spending money on Pull Ups that I threw the boys a Potty Party today. After lots of research (aka time browsing google), I tried a mixture of some different methods I had read about. We started the day with their taking off their diapers and throwing them in the trash on their own. For the party, I basically loaded them up on junk food and juice. This tactic seemed to work for Brody, for he loved the fact that he got to have chips for breakfast. And, he did indeed go to the potty about 8 times today. Unfortunately, all of the juice also resulted in a few accidents as well. As the accidents happened, I could see this look on his face that seemed to say, "Ooops, I don't think that's how that is supposed to happen." Luke had just one accident, and this occurred when he was in time out, so I can't really fault him on that one. The biggest accomplishment for Luke was that he actually pooped in the potty! Up until today, he had not done this.

After each time they went potty, I gave them a choice of getting some candy or a small trinket (think plastic dinosaur, army men, and slinky). They could also choose a balloon. Once again, Brody seemed very lured by the promise of a "PRIZE!" I also set a timer to go off every 20 minutes as a reminder that they needed to try to go to the potty.

All in all, I would classify today as a success. What is it they say about success? Something about beginning with a single step? Well for the boys, the journey to potty success started with a party and lots--and I mean LOTS-- of bribes. Hey--whatever works works!