Melarky

I’m done, more than done, changing Wellington’s bum. I love him but changing his bum stopped being cute a long time ago. He turned three last November. I had these great plans of potty training him way before that (like by age two) but it never happened. Now that baby Hilyard is a little older, I feel like I can devote more time and attention to Wellington.

Gotta love Potty Scotty!

I’ve been kinda gearing up for this potty training stuff for a while. We would practice here and there and even made him a promise that if he went number twosies in the potty, he’d get a bike. Which he did finally get right as summer was winding down. A few months passed and sporadically he’d go in the big boy potty, but he was still basically in diapers.

I read a book, How to Potty Train your Child in Just One Day. It had some good ideas in it and most of which I followed.

I can’t remember if this was the books idea or mine, but I thought it would be helpful if I tracked his bodily functions for a week so I could predict when they would happen. I came to the conclusion that I have a very irregular kid. This didn’t help me at all, so I moved onto the big next step, planning the party.

The big secret of the book is having a potty party. The first half of the whole-day party is spent teaching a bear or a doll to use the toilet and the second half of the day is focused on the child. Everything is centered around using the potty (books, shows, games). Rewards are given with each attempt or successes. The book suggests you not have any other children around while training so you can give your undivided attention to the child being trained. Your supposed to keep positive all day, making everything a game, staying excited and happy throughout it all. Another big thing is keeping the child hydrated all day long, I guess to give him more chances of having a success.

We named him pirate red beard.

While the book had many party themes to chose from I kinda let Wellington pick. I told him that we were going to decorate the downstairs bathroom just for him, and that it would be HIS bathroom. He liked this idea and came up with Sponge Bob as his theme. Which I thought this was funny, since we’ve seen this show before but It is definlty not one of his favorites (I thought for sure I’d be putting up a containment unit, ghosts and proton packs). I went to Six Star Party Outlet with Wellington and we picked out a bunch of sea/beach/pirate themed stuff. In the end I only had like two or three things that were actual Sponge Bob.

As you can see I hung paper fish, placed a hula skirt over the window, hung an incredibly intimidating pirate on the wall, a special sponge bob towel just for him, artwork, a mirror, potty themed books, sponge bob coloring book, etc.

A few of the decorations

I stayed up way too late the night before hanging paper fish, making a cardboard boat, treasure box, and a potty chart. Even though he went with me to get most of the decorations I didn’t let him see the final product until the morning of the party, the first day of no more diapers.

Welly had just caught a fish. Welly didn’t really like Hilly in his boat, but he let him in for the picture.

His Grandma came over to help get him up. We had him name his doll and take him down to the bathroom. Wellington loved everything and seemed really excited. Even though the first half of the day was supposed to be training the doll to use the bathroom, Welly got right into it and went without having to be persuaded. Grandma read him potty books while he ate breakfast in his boat. We took his doll (which he named Hilly) to the bathroom and gave the doll stickers for trying. His doll started out wearing diapers, I took his doll aside and got it wet, so that Welly could change him and put him in big boy underwear. During the morning, dolly had two accidents and two successes. I guess the smashed up rolo looked pretty convincing for a poo cause Welly looked so surprised and confused when he lifted dolly up off his potty to find that. While Grandma was still there we decorated his boat with pirate stickers and had boat rides to the bathroom.

Another activity we did was paint, decorate, and modge podge a spy glass (made from a paper towel roll). He loved doing this and then using it for looking for pirates.

Using the spy glass to look for pirates.

Wellington had a potty chart that had one row for trying, one for pee and one for poo. Down each row were random pictures of a star, a fish, and a treasure box. After he tried or went pee, he got to pick a sticker, then place it where he wanted on each row that corresponded with what he did. The star was for a big treat (like a pouch of fruit snacks or handi-snacks). The fish was for a fishing game and the treasure box meant he could pick something out of the treasure box. At first he wanted only the treasure box squares, but after a while he liked the fishing game better.

Chopping me as I'm trying to take a picture

The treasure box had gold chocolate coins in it, plastic sea creatures, pirate tattoos, fruit snacks and a book. The fishing game consisted of Welly in his boat using a makeshift fishing pole out of a swiffer sweeper handle and some yarn. I would hide things under the water (a blue bedsheet) and I would attach things (candy, sea creatures, random objects) onto the yarn and he would pull it up. He loved this game and thought it was the best and was by far the funner reward.

Welly loved his sword, it was a cheap find at Six Star party outlet. It lit up and made loud sword sounds.

Aunt Barbara and cousin Sadie came over for lunch. Barb read Welly a book and brought him a potty drink and treat.

He was pretty successful the first day, he didn’t have one accident. He even got his train set and train table back (the train set was taken away a Christmas day because he was breaking it) which was his reward for going poo in the potty. It was a challenge to keep him focused on potty stuff all day, he kept wanting to play with his other toys or watch a different show. I thought I planned enough stuff, but about 3:30 I ran out of activities and ideas. We repeated a lot of activities, like the fishing game, but he didn’t seem to mind. I wish we had another DVD to watch. I had two, Potty Power and an Elmo one that I had borrowed from a friend in my ward. The DVD’s were nice cause it would give me a second to take care of my baby etc.

He filled up his whole chart! I think the key to that was keeping him drinking, so he’d have more opportunities. We had bathroom activities that we only did in the bathroom like play swords, reading, and coloring. Another thing I think helped was to not let him leave my sight. This way I could watch carefully for some signs that he had to go.

Fighting Red Beard. Having a sword and someone to fight was perfect for Wellington, he is our tough boy! I told him that red beard had stolen his treasure and he liked that and kept wanting to fight him. He asked me to punch him in the stomach, and oh yeah, I did.

It’s Day 4 today of potty training. Day 2 he had two accidents but he did do really well, even going all on his own. Day 3 was about the same as Day 2. He had two accidents, but more successes. Today so far so good. No accidents, and I’m hoping he keeps it up. I know we still have a ways to go, but I think we’re on our way.