He's potty trained!

I just had to post this email that I sent to my mom, dad and sister a while back about our experience potty training Grant. He's just gonna love me when he gets older!

Dated October 26th, 2006:
Okay, here is the story:

Last Wednesday I put Grant in some Cars underwear and took him to indoor park. About 30 minutes later, he pointed and said, "uh oh". I took him in the bathroom and put a Pull-Up and new pants on him. He promptly pooped. We went home.

Thursday morning I tried again. Throughout the day, I changed 3 pairs of underwear and pants. After the second one, I said, "What? Do you want me to put the Pull-ups on you?" . He said, "Uh, yeah!" I said, "No way! Forget it! You are going to potty in the toilet." We started to administer 2 swats on his bare buns every time he peed or pooped his pants.

Friday, right after I took Katie to preschool, we came back home to get ready to go to indoor park. I had JUST asked Grant if he had to go potty and "No, mom!" He was playing "boats" with our plastic laundry basket and sat down and peed in one. Ew, sick, disgusting. I swatted him, changed him and put him back into clean underwear. That afternoon, Katie grabbed the basket and was going to play boats. I grabbed it from her since I hadn't sanitized it, yet. It became the "potty basket". At 5:00 that evening, Grant peed in the middle of our family room. I pulled out the potty basket and told him that he had to stay in it until Daddy came home. (I figured it wouldn't be long.) Two hours later, Grant is still sitting in the potty basket with wet pants on. (He had a great attitude). I took pictures, of course.





Saturday, we started great! We went to a function at church and Grant stayed in the nursery area. Of course, they asked him over and over if he had to go potty. "No!!" I came to pick him up and he had JUST peed his pants. We went home, cleaned him up and put him to bed.

SUNDAY!!! He was dry ALL day long! We even went up to John and Dee's house and Grant took off to go to the bathroom by himself. The toilet was a little high, so he got his shirt wet, but not his pants! Monday morning he got his Tractor, Guido and Luigi (from Cars, the movie) as his prize. It had been sitting up on the cabinets in the kitchen mocking him for weeks. He was very proud.

So, as of Sunday, Grant is totally potty trained! I mean, he is dry through the night, he potties and poops in the toilet without having to be asked and without an escort, He uses 2 little squares to catch the remaining drips (how cute!) and wipes his own poop, he pulls up his own pants (sometimes needs help) and washes his hands. He even gets out of bed at night to potty in the toilet. He is very proud of that one. We have no use for the pull-ups anymore!! Woo Hoo!

I can't believe how easy it was once I put my mind to it. Of course, Grant had to be ready, too, but I had to be prepared to deal with potty and poop on my carpet. When people ask my strategy, I will say that we went cold turkey. I hated advice from people, so I won't offer any. Have you tried bribes? Of course! Have you tried fruit loops in the toilet? Duh! Have you tried letting him run around naked? Uh, this is Oregon, not Hawaii!

Anyway, had to share. Grant is 3 years and 3 months and is now potty trained!! WOO HOO!!!

Kel :o)