Potty Party!

Potty training Ethan was pretty darn easy. Between his own resolve and his teacher's help, we really didn't do much at all. I guess I knew this time would be different, but it still blows my mind that the boys could be so night and day. Lucas can hold it. He can hold it amazingly well. However he has no desire to actually go in the potty. He just holds it until his next naptime/sleep when he's back in a diaper. Or, he just holds it for absurd amounts of time...

The boys is stubborn. And he likes to be in control. The whole idea of letting it go just freaks him out. So, in order to associate some positives, we held a Potty Party.

There were lots of salty foods, different (usually forbidden) drinks, streamers and balloons, and potties - lots of them! Everyone who went (adults included - though they didn't have to prove it) got an M&M. Ethan quickly drank as much as he possibly could so he could go back again and again and again and again. Lucas had a couple of accidents first thing, but then a few successes later on. Most of all we just had fun.The next day we had all sorts of plans, so the Pullup went on and I just instructed him to try not to go in the pullup. We stopped at the bathroom lots, but I shouldn't have worried. He didn't end up going until 3 in the afternoon. Sheesh. Our morning was spent at the children's garden at Raab Park, where the boys got to practice their mulch spreading skills with tools their own size... They knew exactly what to do.

Step 1 - Fill Wheelbarrow with mulch (don't fling it at each other)

Step 2 - Wheel it on over to the paths....Step 3 - Dump (This is where they should have also spread it around, but since we had different people doing that job at our garden they just left it in big piles for others to trip over...)Step 4 - Wheel on back and repeat.....There were lots more things to do, but they really just played with the mulch forever.... Ethan did get to hold a worm! I was so excited for him. I can't do worms and things like that. I love to get messy, love nature, but cannot hold squirmy, wriggly things... can't. I've never seen E do it either, so this made me oh so happy. Every kid needs to hold a worm sometime. When we finally got home after napping in the car, I knew Lucas had to go bad. He was stomping around and kind of limping. I still couldn't get him to relax and let it out. I tried the "Go anywhere you want in the backyard" thing. Nope. Just giggles. Finally we just hung out outside sans pants (*only Lucas was pantsless) and waited for the inevitable. Every few minutes he'd yell "I pooping!", run, sit on the potty and then get right back up. "No. I not." Since we were outside I just backed off and didn't worry about it. Finally he went. Hallelujah. The night went pretty much the same until he had gone to bed and started yelling. He didn't make it in time to get more than a few drips in, but hey, we counted that a success.

Today? Started out fine, but it was all the same needing to go but refusing to do it. I'm glad he's not just having accidents, but the boy has got to be in pain! Besides a few drips in his pullup at naptime he didn't go until 6:30 tonight. This is how Ethan's last soccer practice went (he's the one in black in the picture):We leave the U's at 4:10 (they'd napped there while I was at the doc). We stop and get a pizza and then head to the park. 4:45 Lucas says he has to go. I take him, he tries for 39 seconds and says he is done. "I wanna get out of here!" I go out, we meet our friends to eat. 5:10 I take Ethan over to his class. He has to go to the bathroom. I take him. He's pretty quick, but still, it's a bit of a hike to the park bathroom and I was JUST there. 5:30-6:00 I can tell Lucas has to go bad, but he refuses to go with me. He's hopping around groaning. Quite the potty dance. 6:20 Lucas says he has to go bad. We run. We sit. Drip drip drip. This is the slowest 3 minutes of my life as an entire day's worth comes out in tiny droplets. The little boy next to us flushes. Lucas is startled and finally starts really going. Flushing stops. Drip drip drip. Little boy uses hand dryer. Lucas freaks, puts his arms on his ears and finally is really going. We leave. We go to pick up a prescription. 7:00 Ethan has to go to the bathroom. We stand and wait. And wait. And wait. It takes him forever. I think I spent way over half my day in the bathroom or next to a little potty. Seriously.

I realize this was only day 2 and a half. It's just so much work for such little reward. If he was going all the time, that would be one thing, but the suspense is killing me!

Enough potty talk. But seriously? What else do i have to talk about?