Welcome to Mellie's mind...

Where thoughts can be funny, can race at all hours of the day and night and can sometimes not make any sense!

Enjoy the ride!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Potty all the time, potty all the time, my kids want to potty all the time!

Why is it when I think about potty training my two younger kids I think of the Eddie Murphy song "Party All The Time?"  Does anyone remember that song besides myself?

Girl
I can't understand it why you want to hurt me
After all the things I've done for you.
I buy you champagne and roses and diamonds on your finger -
Diamonds on your finger
Still you hang out all night
what am I to do?
My girl wants to party all the time
Party all the time
party all the time.
My girl wants to party all the time
party all the time.
She parties all the time - party all the time
I'm getting side tracked.

Yep, I said it... potty training. 

Just typing those words make me want to grab the nearest bottle of Vicodin and run for the hills.  This topic has been floating around in my mind for the past month, maybe two or three......

Is it really time? 
Do I train Reuben (3yrs) and Elianna (2yrs) together at the same time?
Do I wait? 
Should I use pull ups or just put them into normal underware and ride the accident ride from hell out untill the deed is done?  

Being a mother of five kids you would think I could write a book on how to potty train.  I was able to train 3 of them already, Thank God since Michael the 16 year old would look kind of funny walking around in Blue's Clues training pants! :)

Michael was easy, I bribed him!  I set up a reward board blocked it out into several differnt sqaures and put a candy treat or toy treat in each square.  Each time he went to the bathroom or tried he got to pick from the board.  Honestly it took about three days... what can I say he was fat and liked candy!

Trevor wasn't that hard either.....because I didn't really do it.  I was a single mom at that time so my sitter Tara did most of the training since she had him so many hours of the day.  I know she did not ALLOW me to use pull ups on him, Tara was all the way or no way.  I think she might have used a little physical "encouragment" to achive our goal but I just played ignorant to that detail... ignorance is always bliss for me!

Gabriella, being my first girl, I did everything by the book.  I bought the potty chair that sang songs, the book to read to her, the video for her to watch, the potty doll, and all the cute little "padded" big girl pants she could wear to be a "big girl."  It had been 10 years since Trevor was being potty trained. Now, I was older.. I was smarter... I was GOING to do this RIGHT.  I heard horrible rumors that if you were not careful you could cause major issues with little girls, their views on their bodies and bathroom habbits.  I was ready!  What I wasn't ready for was being married to a Hispanic man who had never been around children, potty training and was raised with a father who called you a "Tontooo" if you did ANYTHING that wasn't what he thought you should do.  There was nothing in the potty training books about that!

Gabriella seemed to pick up pretty fast.  Of course the start was challenging. We had our accidents, our tears and our talks with her but she seemed to turn the corner pretty fast.  Dry days became an everyday occurance, and I moved into working towards the dry nights.  At first this was a big issue for Gabriella she could not last the night without wetting the bed.  I was careful to remind her accidents happen and to do her best, but she still struggled.  Remember the hispanic husband I spoke of earlier? 
Stage right:   enters Hipanic husband/daddy. 

Joe's approach to Gabriella waking up in the middle of the night started out as him expressing his concern of why she could not stay dry.  That turned into irritation because she would wake us up in the middle of the night to change her clothes.  Those nights wore on her daddy and he began to "take control of the situation."  He would put Gabriella to bed and they would have a "talk" prior to her going to bed.  If she had an accident he would get up with her and I would hear them talking about it, sometimes there were tears, but often it was just forcefull talks. She turned the corner pretty quickly.  Dry nights became more frequent and she would wake up and proclaim she stayed dry all night.  We rewarded her, we praised her and we praised ourselves.  What started out rough quickly turned into a major accomplishment for all of us. That is until her "padded" panty supply started to dwindle. 

Turns out Gabriella was stashing the evidence of her accidents under her bed behind her stuffed animals and was smart enough to get a towel or a blanket in the middle of the night and lay it down to dry up the bed before morning.  All those praises to her and to ourselves and what she really had learned was to cover up the crime.  We started back at sqaure one and the rest of course is history.

Now, three years later I am starting all over again and wondering... what approach is going to work for these two?  Will they pick it up becuase they are doing it together?  Will daddy have to brush up on his "talks" or should I get out the bribe board and tell Michael it is not for him?  Should I send them both to Tara's house and see if she can do what she did for Trevor? 

Regardless of what road it takes this family down, it will be an experience for all of us and I am sure will provide many stories with many laughs that I can share with all of you!

Better get to it.. what is that saying... "Poop or get off the pot!"