Yes, that is a phrase that I've recently been using... several times a day, actually. And yes, I am really only 28 and not 78, as one would assume if they had just overheard that phrase come out of my mouth. Nonetheless, its become a favorite of mine for reasons even I am unaware of.
It beats some alternatives, I suppose.
Anyways, folks. We have survived! I know there have got to be some fellow moms out there that have laid down at night after an extra long day, or after returning home from a vacation with little children, or after a shopping trip alone with your kids, etc etc, and thought that exact phrase to themselves. Its really all about the little victories, if you ask me. And right now, I'm doing our victory dance because...
Cash is potty-trained!
(picture me raisin' the roof!)
I'm not kidding when I say that this is one area of parenting I've literally been dreading since the day we had Cash. For some reason it just seemed like a very intimidating, daunting task that not only comes with frustration but messes to clean up! And more laundry to do. I mean, how do you really teach someone not to pee or poop whenever they want when thats all they've been doing for the first 2-3 years of their life? This explains why we waited much longer than other parents we know to try to potty-train Cash.
I had heard that if you try to push your child before he or she is ready, you're just asking for frustration and months and months of accidents. So we waited. We talked about the potty, we even bought a potty chair. But he just wasn't interested. So we waited some more.
Finally when he turned 3 we bought him some big boy underwear. He was all about wearing them, just not interested in pottying in the potty chair. At all. At that point I realized that just 4 short weeks after his 3rd birthday we were going to be driving 14 hrs for vacation and the thought of having to stop all the time to let him potty, and having it all thrown off by a different routine, location, etc was less and less appealing than just buying diapers for a few more weeks. So we settled on the idea of hunkering down and potty-training hardcore once we were home.
I'm so proud to tell you this boy was potty-trained in a matter of one week. The first few days were not fun and thats mostly my fault. I will be the first to admit I didn't do a ton of research on the different 'methods' of PT'ing. So I sat that kid on the potty every 20 minutes one day and sat in the bathroom reading books and singing songs to him with little success. Pretty dang exciting! After the second day of that we were both over it so I decided to just lay low and let him be the one to do it. Day 3 he actually pee'ed on the potty and from then on it was cake! Each day got a little better and by Day 6, boyfriend was wearing underwear all day long and keepin' them dry. (We realized that when he had a pull-up on he would just go in it. Underwear he would keep dry. In case you're in the throws of potty-training. Give it a whirl!)
We made him a chart and 7 days later, after staying dry all day he got to go buy some brand new underwear! He chose Thomas the Train undies and has been mighty proud of those things ever since. He even dropped trou' in the middle of Coco's 2 year Well Baby Visit to show his pediatrician what a big boy he is. Ha!
I realize every kid is different and we still have at least 2 more to potty-train. But at least I know its an attainable goal now. ;)
Way to go, Cashers! Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you!!!
