Three Cheers For Levi!!

Here is my little potty trainer! I am so proud of him. We have graduated to underwear and he is going through the day accident free! Of course we still have the occasional accident, but it is not an everyday occurrence. He even does it all himself at home. I don't have to be on him about going and I don't have to help him either! He just stops what he is doing and goes to the bathroom. The end of potty training is near! So what did I learn from all of this???

Don't start until YOU are really ready. Once your child starts showing signs it is really up to you to teach them this skill, so don't bother until you are ready...(unless you have a child that is just "screaming" to be potty trained).

One of the key elements to potty training is the parent being aware of where the bathrooms are and encouraging there little ones to "try" when they are out and about. I believe there is more in the training for adults than the kids sometimes.

Disposable training pants are a great tool if the idea of cleaning poop and pee out of clothes grosses or stresses you out...but in the future I will not rely on them as heavily. They have a great purpose but they can be abused and hinder the process. However, I will say that having them around while training a toddler and having a newborn was a godsend. Plus, we found that the store brand worked as well as the national brand, Kroger and Target carry a great store brand.

So with that being said, we have ditched the diapers and are working on night training. I am not stressed about this at all. He is a boy and I can only control so much of this process. He is waking up dry most mornings now, and he is still wearing a diaper to bed. When the pack runs out he will wear the remainder of his pull-ups that we have around...then we will assess whether he is capable of sleeping in underwear. All in all it has been a great learning experience for both of us. You know you are the parent of a toddler when you walk in the bathroom to find a little guy on the potty and he looks at you, huffs, and says, "Mom, I'm pooping." and this statement is one of the highlights of your day.

In Summary
We started the 'boot camp' in mid October and he slowly made it through his birthday and the holidays with small improvement. We then stepped it up in March and by the end he was going to the potty on his own...then we had a true test with family coming into town and then Easter get together. He almost made it through the first test, but he passed Easter with flying colors. He stayed dry all day! Even with all of his cousins around and an egg hunt. We have had several successful outings and hope to be in underwear when Mom's Day Out continues on the 16th.