Potty Training!

Yes -- the time is upon us! Harrison has been sitting on the potty at school for a month or two now and likes to fake-pee all the time at home ("fake-peeing" is aiming at something -- usually a potty or a plant, sometimes the shower drain -- and making a "psssssssssssst" sound), so we decided last week that it was time to give it a real go.

I told him over the weekend that we were going to the store to get him a potty today so that he could pee in it whenever he wanted. I also told him that we'd get some underpants and explained what those were and who wore them (basically, I listed every guy that Harrison knows and confirmed that they wear underpants instead of diapers), but he didn't key in on the underpants as much as on the potty, so I focused my excitement on the potty.

Both boys are at home with me today and tomorrow (the official first day of school is Wednesday of this week, and school is closed to students these two days), so Harrison and I talked all morning about going to get his potty once Hewitt woke up from his morning nap. We even went to the Ikea website and pre-shopped potties. :) Harrison told me that he wanted a red one, and he wasn't kidding because every time I asked what we were going to get today after he saw the red potty on the computer, he answered "A red potty!" Oh, boy -- I really, really hope that the Atlanta Ikea store has red potties in stock...

Finally Hewitt wakes up and we hit the road -- celebrating red potties all the way to the store! And does Ikea have a red potty? It does!! We got two. And also two green ones, just for good measure. It's Ikea -- stuff is cheap! Plus, that will give us one potty in each bathroom. Harrison wanted to hold his red potty all the way to the car, but then he told me that it would be okay to put it in the way-back with the other potties when it was time to unload the cart.

Next stop : Target. Now that we have our potties, I start getting us all excited about underpants ("unna-pants"). "Harrison, what are we going to buy in this store?" "Unna-pants!" My biggest challenge with this purchase was going to be avoiding the branded (superheroes, Cars, Buzz Lightyear, Dora and Diego the Explorers, etc.) underpants -- we've done well so far in keeping the brands out of the house (the bike helmet was the biggest challenge, but we eventually found a blue one with a monkey on it -- not Curious George). In my dreams (I dream about toddler underwear?), I would buy alot of pairs of solid briefs. In the Target toddler underwear buyer's dreams, I would buy Marvel, Mickey Mouse, and Thomas the Tank Engine briefs. After some serious scouring of the toddler underwear aisle, the Target toddler underwear buyer's dream came true. The only solid underwear I could find was white undershirts, which did not meet our needs, so I asked Harrison to choose from all the branded stuff (somehow he knew who Mickey Mouse was, but he didn't know any of the others!). He took his job very seriously -- even sending a few back to the wall of underpants. We ended up with three 7-packs, which should last us a day or two, right?? :) He looked like such a big boy holding up all of the packages I put in his lap and deciding which ones he thought would look good on his little bottom. I was so proud of him but managed to only *almost* cry when we were choosing the underpants -- I didn't *actually* cry.

When we got home, we immediately took off his shorts and diaper and tried out each potty. :) I left him freeballing (can I say that in a family-friendly blog?) in the kitchen while I took Hewitt up to settle him in for a nap. Suddenly I hear, "Mama! I pee potty!" so little Hewie and I run downstairs as fast as is possible with a sore knee and a baby drinking milk. Harrison had indeed "peed potty" -- in addition to a tower of Legos and the floor that was unfortunate enough to be located between the tower and a potty, so I just finished washing a sinkful of Legos in hot, soapy water... I was so proud of him. He showed me the one drop that made it to the potty, and we all celebrated. Then Hewitt and I sat down on the floor while he spent some more time on the potty and we talked about how proud we were of him and what a good job he did to go sit on the potty and to tell me what he had done. Once Hewitt got over the initial excitement of Big Brother's achievement, I dropped him into bed and then went back down to look at all 21 pairs of "unna-pants" with Harrison. He told me that he's going to wear his Goofy pair first. They're all in the laundry now and will hopefully be ready when he gets up from nap.

Harrison's army of unna-pants

Potty training tips are welcome! We've heard about rewarding with M&Ms or stickers or something but aren't doing that right now for two main reasons -- 1. He's really excited to sit on the potty for the pure joy of sitting of the potty, so why waste the bribes? 2. How do you stop giving treats each time he goes? Would it tell him that the first 50 times he went on the potty were good but the 51st time was nothing worth celebrating so why bother?

My big boy is getting even bigger!!

If you read this entire entry, award yourself 50 points. If you read this entire entry without taking a break or rolling your eyes, award yourself 100 points. If you read this entire entry and clapped and cheered at the exciting parts, award yourself 200 points. Yay for Harrison's fan club!