potty training keaton

Check the bottom for an update!

The time finally came for potty training!

Keaton started showing us signs here and there {going to the potty after Daddy, before bath, etc} over the last few months, but then we were playing a few weeks ago and he said "oh! I have to go potty. I have to go on my big potty upstairs." So that's what we did - I took him up and he went! I think the teachers in his MOPS class were teaching him to do this because I really didn't talk about the potty much or have him try on a regular basis! Go MOPS! haha

So Ryan and I swallowed our fear of pee & poo covering every part of our house and decided to try the 3 day potty training method. I read a little online and then tweaked it to fit our situation. Basically, the idea is to skip training pants and go straight to underwear all the time. Stay home for at least 3 days, give Keaton salty snacks, lots to drink, and put him on the potty as much as possible so he gets the feeling of "having to go."

Now I don't want to jinx anything, but it worked :) At least I think it did.

Day 1: he was obviously very serious about the whole thing.

I was very nervous! I was kind of dreading it, but once we started it went smooth and was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

He had one pee incident first thing, on the first day and has only had 1 "accident" since! I think the big thing is that he was ready. We decided to stop if it became overly frustrating or we could tell things weren't clicking.

On day 2, we let Keaton tell us when he had to go. Of course, we asked when he started to dance around or it had been a while, but we wanted him to be able to recognize the feeling and then tell us. We did no pants for basically a week for convenience sake :) 

Here he's looking for some salty snacks to go with his juice. Keaton's favorite part about learning to go potty was all the juice he got. Usually that's a special treat drink for parties, but when you want your kiddo to drink a lot --> pee a lot you give them juice!

By day 3, he was great at telling us he needed to go and has been doing an awesome job ever since! Again, I definitely ask him and suggest he tries throughout the day! If I get busy oohhhh....chasing after our other toddler and forget, he has been good at letting me know. 

Does it get any cuter than little boys in underwear??? NO. 

I about die every time I see him with his whitey tighties on :)

So for him learning to pee on the potty was no big deal, pooing on the other hand was a little more complicated.

I won't go into major details, but I'm not surprised it took him a few days longer. Trying to understand the feeling of your body {especially in regards to that}is a little complicated! We started having him sit for long periods of time and watch a show...or 2..or 3..on the potty waiting and waiting for him to go, but that didn't work. After a couple of days going pee and a few poo accidents, I think he knew what he needed to do, it was just a matter of figuring out when his body was ready.

I would say over the course of a week he and I both figured out his cues and he has done an amazing job! I'm really proud of him.

He can now reach things waaaay high on the counter AND go #1 & 2 on the big boy potty ;0) We have a full blown big boy on our hands.

He wears underwear all day {even through his nap}, but gets a diaper at night. I'm waiting for several consecutive days of a dry morning diaper before getting rid of that. He knows that he only gets 1 diaper a day at night time....all other times is NO diaper. 

We've been out an about several times since he started to wear underwear and I can safely say I've seen every public restroom within a 15 mile radius. Twice. 

We've even had to use the potty seat stashed in our van ;0) 

I'm sure we'll have our fair share of accidents in the future...maybe even later today...but I think we're on the right track!

I should add that Penn also loves potty training. We have locks on all the toilets, but since we've started, the toilet seats have been up a lot more and one of Penn's top 10 favorite things to do is splash in toilet water and throw toys in. He's fast too! I barely get Keaton's pants down and Penn has the potty seat off the toilet and his hands are playing in the water. hahaha 

**Update: I couldn't help but laugh because literally 30mins after I posted this, I went to get Keaton from his nap and he had peed. And then he has had a few accidents so far this week {no poo!! little victories!} Isn't that how it is though...kids keep us humble 0:-) I DO think we've gone over the big hurdle and are now in "maintaining" phase. Basically, we're all learning over here and take everything one day at a time! I'm proud of Keaton and the progress he's made so far!**