One Month Diaper Free!

For many blogging parents, this post is one that is highly regarded and met with much anticipation. It is also one that is often a little premature, with later posts to follow claiming failure for the previously published post, or in some cases, posts. This is the Potty Training Post!

I have read countless accounts of little tykes and their struggles for diaper freedom. Or rather, their parents struggles. Some posts claim lengthy strides of progress, only to be countered at a later date with sad accounts of poopy pants and wet sheets.

It is with this in mind that I boldly shout to all the world (or at least the part of it that reads this blog) that Max is finally potty trained! I say finally with a bit of hesitation. Not because I fear he will regress and we will find him proudly shouting the infamous words, "I pooped!" while holding fistfuls of his glorious prize for all to see. No, I say finally because I think that is what Max would say if you asked him.

Potty training Max was actually really easy. He has been so successful at doing his part to fill the local sewage ponds that I could probably write a book on the things we did, how we encouraged him, and how he began his days of big boy underwear bliss like a champ, succumbing to only two accidents (none of them containing poop, thankfully).

The only problem; usually these types of books are hundred plus page endeavors, written to make parents feel like they are doing absolutely nothing to help their children succeed in life, and everything they have done has been a complete waste of time. These books will then go on to point out, step-by-step, what all parents should do to foster the success of their child. They conclude with a disclaimer that if the parents reading the book aren't impressed with the effect it has on their children, then they haven't followed the suggestions completely, and thus, they are a complete failure at being a parent.

Not my book. It would consist of about five pages (not something publishers are really looking for to put them on the best sellers list). It would go something like this,

1. Tell your kid that it's really cool to poop and pee on the toilet.
2. If there is no toilet around, or he or she just doesn't want to go potty on the toilet, let them go outside. Even if you are at a public park or a duck pond by the side of a busy street with lots of other families around, feeding the ducks with their un-potty trained children.
3. Bribe your poop machine with chocolate. Lots of chocolate. An entire five pound bag of Hershey's will do.
4. The end.

I guess this book would only be four pages, and not the aforementioned five. As you can see, this book is already doomed to be a failure.

Regardless, Max has been diaper free for nearly a month! We don't even have a back-up diaper in the house for emergencies! I know. It's crazy. We like to live life on the edge.

Max took to potty training like a fish takes to a plastic hook-concealing worm. Once he was on, he never let go! I think he just decided it was time. Of course we always encouraged him. We bought him a little toilet seat that fits over the big toilet seat about a year ago. Occasionally he would use it. Most of the time he would refuse.

We bought him some big boy underwear a while ago too. He'd wear it once in a while, usually over his pee-soaked diaper. Then we got the chocolate. After that, the diapers were donesville.

If you couldn't tell from the length of this post, we are super proud of his accomplishment. Good job Max! It's nice to finally write this much-anticipated blog post. Let's hope two accidents are all you'll ever have, and that we won't have to write a potty training failure post in the near future!