Milestone: Potty Training
Dear Maggie & Marshall,
To accomplish anything in life that is worth accomplishing, it will always take hard work. When that work does not come easily, like say when you want to work out, or learn a foreign language you care nothing about, you just have to force yourself to do it. When you force yourself to do things, you are training yourself. Recently, you have both gotten to experience this for the first time, during the toughest training I have been involved with, your Potty Training.
Disclaimer: Maggie's potty training lasted for 1/2 of 1 day. While you are showing how incredibly smart you are every day, your little genius baby mind could not figure out what we were trying to accomplish. You enjoyed the candy that comes with sitting on the potty, but once you were done eating it, you would walk away and pee. So, your training is postponed, temporarily.
Marshall's potty training was slightly more successful at first, and then really took off. After a little less than a week or so, you had it figured out. You have had the occasional accident (especially with poop for some reason), but all in all not too bad. Of course, that is easy to say now, because it is pretty much over. The only worry now is the fact that you not only hate wearing diapers, but you hate wearing bottoms of any kind. Unfortunately, that has also occurred at the same time that you have learned to do somersaults, which has produced some undesirable images.
We started the potty training by putting both of you on those little kid toy-potties, and offering to give candy, toys, and books when you used the potty. It took a while to sink in, because at first you just sat on the potty, took the reward, and from time to time would get surprised by pee going into the toilet. That worked for a while, and then Marshall went to the grown-up potty. This was a lot of fun, because both of you love when it is over and you get to use half a bottle of soap while you turn the bathroom into a slip and slide with sink water.
Using the bathroom was still OK, because at least there wasn't that big of a mess, but just when we got into a routine, Marshall peed in front of the toilet, and Mommy slipped in it and literally broke her toe. Luckily, the bathrooms are now dry, because Marshall prefers to pee off of our back porch anyway. I can tell you that, and so can all of our neighbors.
The funny thing about this whole experience is that we actually stepped back to your early days during this time. One Saturday morning I dozed off on the couch. You both decided to do front flips across my legs (again, the whole Marshall-no-pants thing made me have to put a stop to it), and as I woke up, I found there was food everywhere, pee everywhere, toys everywhere, and chocolate (I hope) in the corner.
Speaking of napping, anytime I sit still now I start to nap, whether I try or not. There is a lack of sleep going around, partly due to you fighting your bed time, and partly due to my immense fear that Marshall will cover wherever he is sleeping in his own waste. Luckily, you have started accepting diapers at night, so I am getting a few extra ZZZs.
As you can see, Potty Training has set the family back a couple of years. But as with most things in life, and especially with you two, the work is well worth it. Here we now stand with a happy little boy who loves to pee off ledges, porches, into creeks, into grass, and in lakes. Random strangers, close family, and all of our neighbors, are at risk to see a public peeing at any second. As a household, we are using 50% less diapers. Even though you have the hang of this whole bathroom thing (mostly), I still can't help but get excited everytime you do it. I had never cheered in a bathroom, or on a back porch at 6:30 AM, but thanks to you I now have. Once again, the training has paid off.
Thanks for reading,
Love,
Dad
To accomplish anything in life that is worth accomplishing, it will always take hard work. When that work does not come easily, like say when you want to work out, or learn a foreign language you care nothing about, you just have to force yourself to do it. When you force yourself to do things, you are training yourself. Recently, you have both gotten to experience this for the first time, during the toughest training I have been involved with, your Potty Training.
We started the potty training by putting both of you on those little kid toy-potties, and offering to give candy, toys, and books when you used the potty. It took a while to sink in, because at first you just sat on the potty, took the reward, and from time to time would get surprised by pee going into the toilet. That worked for a while, and then Marshall went to the grown-up potty. This was a lot of fun, because both of you love when it is over and you get to use half a bottle of soap while you turn the bathroom into a slip and slide with sink water.
Using the bathroom was still OK, because at least there wasn't that big of a mess, but just when we got into a routine, Marshall peed in front of the toilet, and Mommy slipped in it and literally broke her toe. Luckily, the bathrooms are now dry, because Marshall prefers to pee off of our back porch anyway. I can tell you that, and so can all of our neighbors.
The funny thing about this whole experience is that we actually stepped back to your early days during this time. One Saturday morning I dozed off on the couch. You both decided to do front flips across my legs (again, the whole Marshall-no-pants thing made me have to put a stop to it), and as I woke up, I found there was food everywhere, pee everywhere, toys everywhere, and chocolate (I hope) in the corner.
Speaking of napping, anytime I sit still now I start to nap, whether I try or not. There is a lack of sleep going around, partly due to you fighting your bed time, and partly due to my immense fear that Marshall will cover wherever he is sleeping in his own waste. Luckily, you have started accepting diapers at night, so I am getting a few extra ZZZs.
Thanks for reading,
Love,
Dad
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