GROSS COOPER!

Potty training has been going very well... in fact, the big boy is even wearing big boy undies to Mother's Day Out at the Church today! Good luck to both him and the sweet ladies who will have the pleasure of, um, well, encouraging him today! :) He's really getting it down, and even telling me when he has to go as opposed to me just having him try once an hour.

I have noticed a few tactics that work for us... in addition to a few smarties once he performs (for lack of a better word). He also gets lots of loving and praise. I still think the smarties are his favorite though, as too much of a hoopla from me gets me banished to the hallway and scolded for "that's too much clapping mom!" He attempts some rather impressive verbal agility and cute-faced persuasion to get the number of smarties to increase (curious if there is a legal or political aspect to his future :)). But the smarties work none the less. And in fact, often now he even forgets to ask for one, progress! We remind remind remind, a very helpful tactic, and make sure a potty (or two or three) are readily available. We also never freak out about accidents (luckily there have been very few).

Three challenges have aroused however.

#1: If he's really into whatever he's doing/playing or just doesn't feel like going to sit on the potty he will stop and ask me, "Mom, do I have a diaper or pull up on, or do I have big boy undies?"

Once I tell him he has big boy undies on, he says "oh, then I have to go potty" and takes off for the bathroom. But, if I say he has a pull up on, he will actually consider just going back to whatever he is playing! Cunning my little rule bender :)

#2: He is pretty proud of it once it's in the potty and likes to run out and say, "I did it mom, want to see it!?! Let's go look at it! I show it to you!" Yea, I'm so excited. And I have to really act that way when he proudly lifts the potty seat and points to his latest creation. What a special occasion, one I'm not sure I will note in his baby book, but at least it will live in infamy here in the blog :) The best part is, sometimes we get to look at it a second or third time! I can't wait until the grandparents arrive for visits later this month... I'm looking forward to seeing if he'll want to share with them and how they'll handle such a special event :)

#3: If I don't get to the little potty fast enough after a session... Cooper (the dog) will attempt to eat the poopie! GROSS! GROSS GROSS GROSS GROSS GROSS! I thought I was going to gag this morning as I ran back down the hall to shield Benjamin from the horror that was ensuing and to banish that mongrel to his kennel until I could go out and buy lots of mint flavored doggie bones! Come on dude! I was only gone for a second getting the Lysol! We feed you great! You even get a few table scraps mixed into your dinner sometimes and you always get an evening rawhide! That's just disgusting!

Just some special potty adventures I wanted to remember!

love,

The Sanitation Engineer