Our ward boundaries we changed last week at Stake Conference. It's something that has been rumored to happen for at least the 2 1/2 years we've lived here. Our former ward, Parkway, was a very, very, small ward with some incredible families! We saw countless families move out during our time spent there with very few big move ins. Despite being in a small ward, we formed some amazing friendships and I've never, ever, ever, felt so welcome and loved in a ward. I knew I could call anyone for help and they'd be there in an instant. I never felt lost, alone, or friendless in our former Parkway ward.
Anyway, we knew change was bound to happen, and change came in a big way. The Stake (read: with permission from Salt Lake), basically squished former Parkway and Chesterfield ward boundaries, tossed in a few families from Rockwood and Frontenac, and then split everyone East and West, prior it was North and South, thus creating two completely new wards with new bishops, presidencies, callings, and members. They kept about 1/2 of each former ward in each new ward, so we still know tons of people in our new ward. I think it was the best way they could have split it!!
It was amazing to be in a huge ward on Sunday. The time it took to pass just the bread for Sacrament was equivalent to the time it took our former ward to complete the whole Sacrament service. There were people in the overflow and when we arrived 5 minutes early, it was a small struggle to find a seat. I haven't been in a ward that large in years. It was exciting and joyous but slightly overwhelming. I'm sad I'm not working in Young Women's anymore either, but hopefully I'll have another opportunity later in life. All in all, I think the changes are wonderful and will be amazing.
Now, back to our morning....
I've never been one to say that my child had to be potty trained at a certain age. I've always had the mindset that he'd be closer to 3 than 2 and that it would just happen when it was time. I was also planning on starting the process after the baby was born.
But, apparently I may be wrong.
At breakfast this morning, Bubs said "I pooted!" which usuallu means he went a little pee pee. Then he told me "I go potty on Mommy's toilet! You stay here, I be right back" and he ran to the bathroom. I followed him and he was removing clothing and saying "Pants off. Socks off. Diaper off." Then he climbed on the toilet. He didn't go, but we pulled out his little toilet and he spent the morning pantsless and sitting on it. He knew that he needed to poop and he wanted to go on the toilet.
While he was watching a show it happened. He came running into the bathroom where I was getting ready, yelling "I pooped! I pooped! Kaiya eating the poop!" and low and behold, he had pooped in his little toilet!!
I cleaned him up, we celebrated, danced, cleaned things up and he got some chocolate chips. He was ecstatic!!
He spent most of the next hour on, or near, his toilet trying to go again.
Then he was terribly upset at me for putting on a diaper and taking him to run errands. After we got back, he got distracted by toys and pooped in his diaper without saying anything (I was distracted on the phone too). So, does our potty training journey begin? I'm thinking so!
I've gotten some really awesome tips and advice from lots of friends who are moms. Thank you!! Hopefully I'll be able to utilize some of them. My goal is to let him potty train himself. I definitely want to make a big deal of it and celebrate when it happens, but I also don't want to nag him and force him to potty all the time. He is a smart kid and really good at communicating, so I think we'll be successful. I don't want to digress once we start, so I just want to take it slow and not force anything. He's really excited about chocolate chips, the potty dance, new underwear, and sitting on the toilet, so I'm just going to go with the flow and see what happens!!
Last but not least, poor guy was so excited about putting on 3 pairs of new undies, plus one on his head as a hat, that he decided to run and get his real hat. On his way back in the kitchen he tripped and fell flat on his face. The result? His first bloody nose.
He was a trooper and was right back to normal after a quick screaming cry and a few snuggles. Then he decided to be sneaky and lock me inside his bedroom while he was on the outside. No, I didn't have a key. After a quick, urgent, trying not to panic, prayer, I managed to turn the knob hard enough in such a way that the latch slid out of the hole and the door opened. For once I'm glad we've had issues with our doors staying shut tight and hanging in the frame straight. Could've been tragic, for sure! At least I had my phone in case of a real emergency....
I'd love to hear your potty training stories! Successes, failures, frustrations, tricks, etc. Please share!
p.s. 30 weeks down, 10 to go. Wahoo!
I don't have any experience with boys but I will say that potty training is a process. I think that's where a lot of people start getting frustrated(including me). There are good days and bad and sometimes even bad weeks. Emma has been potty training for 1 1/2 years now and still will have a little accident every once in a while. Good luck and let us know how it goes because I will have to eventually potty train Kellen and I hear boys are a lot different!
ReplyDeleteAwesome about Blake & the potty!! We are in the process with T and is doing amazing. I think you should totally go for it, especially since he is acting all excited about it and wants to try! If it turns out that he is only excited for a day or two & not really ready, then you can always stop, and come back to it in a month or two. Here's what worked with T: Lightening McQueen Undies (his total favorite!!), treats for the first day or two, and then just trial and error. Once we went to undies, we did NOT go back to diapers. Even in the car. OR at night. We just stopped letting him go to bed with his sippy. We give him a drink at dinnertime and one right before bed if he insists. For the first couple of weeks, we had to ask him CONSTANTLY if he needed to go potty, and often we would just take him in to the bathroom and have him sit on the potty for a few minutes. We have never used a potty chair, because we were afraid our kids would ONLY go on their little potty. That would be a big problem for times when we are downtown and don't have the little potty with us. At first, T was a little afraid of the big potty, but that only lasted a very short time. He has had some accidents, especially the first couple of weeks. Yes, we have had some poopy accidents too. But T very quickly realized that it was not cool to poop in his McQueen undies. Now, we rarely have to ask him if he needs to go potty- he will come tell us. He still needs our help in doing everything in the bathroom, but doesn't have accidents, even at night. We just make sure to give lots and LOTS of positive reinforcements, but we made sure to let him know in the beginning that pooping or going pee in his undies was not O.K. and he learned really pretty quick.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, it sounds like Blake is ready to give it a go!! It would be SO awesome to have that done before the baby comes for you. But if not, that's ok too!
Braden really wants to start going to school, so we told him he can't go until he learns to go on the potty by himself (their rule, not ours). Every once in a while, we ask him if he needs to sit on the potty and he either says yes or no. Other than that, we kind of let him do his own thing. We're hoping it kicks in soon- two babies worth of diapers is WAY too much (money, time, and poop).
ReplyDelete