Self-potty-trainer

Jasper has a new title around the McCallum household and that is "The Self-potty-trainer".  Our clever little monkey has decided on his own to do his business on the toilet instead of his diaper.  He probably started asking to sit on the toilet about 3 weeks ago but it was mostly false alarms or perhaps right after he wet his diaper.  He asked to go mostly at inconvenient times, like when we had to take Sam to school, so I was not 100% on board to start the potty training. (Plus I remember it was not a fun time trying to train Sammy!) At the same time, I did not want to discourage his efforts so I did try to sit with him as many times as I could.

The thing with Jasper is that he is pretty regular and I know he does #2 at least once in the morning.  We hit the jackpot one morning and it has been a real incentive for him to keep at it ever since.  He especially likes to look out for "snakes" (which is what he calls Sam's poops, yes, I apologize for the visuals).  The only time he has asked to go potty at a public place since we started training was at our Kindermusik class.  Thank goodness their bathrooms are clean as Jasp likes to strip down naked, including his socks!  I have to admit, when he did his poop and we returned to class with all the kids about the same age who are not trained, I was feeling pretty proud of my little boy.  Then he went even further to impress me and his classmates as 5 minutes later, he asked to go again, and he did a pee!  He has really gotten to know that it is quite an accomplishment to go potty because he now says "Good Boy!" to himself after he is done, as he has heard me say it to him so many times.

Whereas some parents need to bribe their kids to sit on the toilet, I need to bribe mine to get off the toilet.  Seriously!  Sometimes Jasper can have about 5 mini-pees in one sitting or just sit there and wait...and wait...and wait for something to happen.  He can't differentiate the feelings of poop, pee and farts so anytime he feels an urge, he runs to the bathroom.  And when I say, "All done!", to try to get him off,  he says, "No, more! Shhhhhh!"  (I had at first made the "shhhhh" sound to help him go pee)  And we'll sit and wait...and wait...and wait.  Daddy once left him sitting on the toilet by himself with no kid-training seat and Mommy freaked out that he was going to fall in. Now when I hold Jasper up, he asks, "Fall?  Fall?"  Luckily Gung Gung is coming in a few days and bringing us our second training seat so we can have one upstairs and one downstairs. 

Daddy had thought Jasper might be more comfortable in the plastic potty chair so he pulled it out of storage for him.  One morning, shortly after we started training, I put it out into the livingroom so Jasp could watch some tv while doing his business.  The funny little guy dragged the potty all the way into bathroom, sat it right up in front against the toilet bowl and closed the door.  Sam closes the door for privacy so I guess Jasp is just taking notes from big brother.  Jasp prefers the toilet over the potty which works well for Mommy, less mess to clean!

And I know I really shouldn't complain because he is a little guy potty training himself, but for a few nights, Jasper was crying at night and waking Mommy and Daddy to bring him to the bathroom.  It would be alright if it was quick and easy but Jasp still pulls the whole, "No, more!" routine even though he is dog-tired and it is in the middle of the night...and he wakes up with a wet diaper anyways.  Little steps litte man, Rome was not built in a day.

Since Sam was older when we started his potty training (March 2010), he went straight to undies right away and with pull-ups during naps.  Jasp is still combo of diapers and pull-ups, Mommy is not too confident about the undies just yet!