We Like to Potty -- We Like, We Like to Potty

When my brother was potty training his second son, he was also a disc jockey for dances.  I remember one night the song that goes, "We like to party -- we like, we like to party" came on the radio, and he was over and said that was Jared's theme song for potty training him.  Party became potty and - viola!  Kids LOVE things like that!

Fast forward a few years and it's my turn.  While I was at my mom's house, my sister decided to spearhead this potty-training movement and took Abby to the potty.  Then she sang a little song that went something like, "Abby went pee-pee in the potty, Abby went pee-pee in the potty."  Well -- Abby remembered that song and began singing it at random times.  The other half of that story is that Abby subsequently (in the same hour) went pee-pee in the potty again, on the wood floor, and in front of the front door.  And that ended that potty-training movement as my frustrated sister declared she was done and returned Abby's diaper to her bottom.

Well - we decided to take it on full force this weekend.  I was a little skeptical, but Dave had done some research and read that it only took a few days for them to get the hang of it, and since we had a few days in this two-day weekend, we declared today the first day of the first ever Chaffee Family Potty Training Weekend!

How did it go?  Pretty well.  We learned that it is best to begin these kinds of things when your child is well-rested/has had a good night's sleep the night before.  Otherwise you get temper tantrums and/or meltdowns every time you suggest they try to go to the bathroom in the toilet.  But once Abby got into it and Isaac was denied candy the first two times that Abby got it, he decided to jump on board!  And the rest of the day went really, really well.

We decided to strip them down to nothing, fill them up with all sorts of liquids (soda pop, fruit juice, fruit smoothies, water, chocolate milk - you name it), and offer them candy (peanut M&M's or Jelly Belly's) every time they used the bathroom.  Oh, and we locked them in the kitchen for all the time between potty uses to take advantage of the easy-clean tile floors. We set the timer for 10 minutes and took them excitedly to the bathroom every ten minutes, whether they actually went or not. We didn't get training toilets, I just bought some little stools for them to use to get up to the toilet and to get up to the sink to wash their hands.  In between potty attempts/successes/accidents, they took baths, watched movies, colored, played with blocks, drew on their chalkboards, and jumped on the trampoline! (We got a picture of them on the trampoline -- it was really cute . . . until Isaac's stomach decided it had HAD it with sugar and he threw up all over everything.  Good thing he was on the trampoline, right?  Dave hosed the tramp and the twins down, they came inside, and we resumed schedule as if nothing had happened - well, we actually cut back to one piece of candy instead of two and offered them water to drink for the rest of the afternoon.)

The results of day 1: Isaac asked to go potty. Abby got to the point she wouldn't let you take her off of the toilet until she had gone potty and gotten a piece of candy.  In fact, we had to lock Abby out of the bathroom to KEEP her from trying to go potty and washing her hands a million times in a row.  I think that's a pretty good sign.

So all we have to do is get through church tomorrow and hit it hard again for the afternoon/evening. 

Next week -- well, since Dave will be gone, I decided to keep this naked time going (cuz it is SOOOOO EASY to clean up messes on tile floors and not have to spend a ton of time scrubbing out clothes for the time being).  I made a sticker chart to replace candy - partially because they aren't that used to getting candy around here and I'm not a huge fan of giving kids even sugar-free candy on a REGULAR basis and partially because I think the candy thing gets a little old and doesn't really build up to anything bigger to keep them going.  So I'm going to make a trip to the dollar store with them and let them pick out a few prizes - and when they fill up each line of the sticker chart, they have met a goal and get a prize.  I have seven lines - seven goals - seven prizes, and probably seven days of potty-training goodness.  That will take us to the next weekend when Daddy is home and we can - together - transition to big-kid underwear! Yay!