As many people know, I've been struggling with Landon man and getting him potty trained. We had trial runs in the past, but hit it hard when he turned three in December. Poor Facebook world has had to deal with my ranting and ravings on the days where I just want to throw in the towel or when I want to scream at him and cry and lock myself in my room. Yes, it is frustrating for me. It doesn't seem frustrating for him at all, or stressful. Our breakthrough moment began when I realized he needed to be naked to use the potty. If only that realization had come earlier. Naked was the only way to get him to poop in the potty and not in his underwear. Believe me, I was getting the craps of that (pun intended). I was gagging as I had to clean out his underwear multiple times a day in the toilet....seriously, I never would have survived cloth diapers. I would have sent them off to the diaper service full of poo. And yes, I would have payed out the nose for a diaper service. I thought about contacting them for little boy undies. People told me that they just threw them away instead of cleaning them, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away his superhero big boys.
For my one nephew it worked just to tell him not to pee on the character on his underwear. He loved that character so much that he wouldn't do it. I tried that angle...no luck. He didn't seem to care that he pooed on the Hulk's head or peed on Iron Man. Show a little respect man! After a month or so of struggling with the underwear issues the light bulb finally came on. *DING!* NAKED. The child needs to run around in nothing but a shirt and socks. Slowly we were able to bring back the big boys and only a few accidents. But then we would have those days where it all went to pot and we were back at square one. And not just a day, multiple days. It usually happened after people were over or we traveled for the day since we stopped the routine. And although I knew that it didn't make it any easier to handle when there was pee everywhere. So we would have to go back to naked for a few days and slowly work back to underwear. And thus my frustration.
He was doing an amazing job and then in the span of two days he peed on the floor twice and on the couch. I thought I was going to loose it. This was just a few weeks ago. Two of those events were on the same day! Frustration reoccurring. So we had to go back to naked for a day and work our way back. But the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to grow brighter. Hooray! He is wearing his big boys successfully all the time. This is at home, not in public. And at home he can't wear pants over them or he forgets about it entirely. He's also wearing a pull up in public and just in the past few days has been doing amazing! I'm over joyed at this development.
Last week he actually let me take him to the bathroom at a restaurant! He sat on the toilet, but began to panic because it was so loud in there. Other people were of course coming in and turning on the hand dryers (that sound like jet engines taking off) and flushing the toilets (that sounds like they are sucking people down to the depths). He began to cry and we had to abandon the trip, but I was so proud of him giving it a try at all! This week he successfully used the potty at his grandma's house to poop, AND today use the potty at the tax office to poop! Are you kidding me??? He even came and told me that he had to go instead of resorting to his pull-up. I am gushing with joy over my big guy and the leaps and bounds he has made recently. Maybe one day we'll be able to wear pants at home too.
I know that one day he'll be potty trained and then it will be on to boy number two. I'm hoping that my challenges with him will help me with the future children. I'm so happy that we are closer to the end and I hope that I can hold on until then!
Way to go Lando!!!
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