Christian's Epiphany

When Justin turned 6 months old, I decided it was time to get Christian potty trained. I wasn't feeding the baby as often at that point, so I had more time to spend in the bathroom with Christian. As soon as we discovered that Christian was a "stander-upper" instead of a "sitter-downer" like Grant was, he was staying dry most of the time. A "Dry Days" chart worked really well for Christian. As soon as he got so many stickers on his chart, he was allowed to pick out a new (but inexpensive) toy from the store. Although staying dry most days, Christian was still having trouble with going "number 2" in his pants. I made a new chart called "Christian's Poo-Poo Chart", but the only stickers on it were from the couple of times that I caught him just about to do his business and rushed him to the bathroom just in time. Most other times I just had to clean up the mess and change his underwear, all the while reminding him that poo-poo goes in the potty not in his underwear.

And so it went for a couple of months (what seemed like an eternity) until 2 weeks ago. Christian told me that he had to go to the bathroom - I assumed he just had to go pee-pee, but a few minutes later I heard him shouting with joy, "Mommy, I made poo-poo!" I hurried in to verify this fact and congratulate (and wipe) him. Indeed, he had gone poo-poo in the potty all by himself! As I was helping him put his pants back on, he looked up at me and said (like it was a new and profound idea), "Poo-poo goes in the potty and not in my underwear." I said, "Yes, that's right" (while in my mind wondering how many times I had said this exact same thing to him over the past few months). Well, no matter now...it was like his own personal bit of revelation. Christian hasn't had a single accident since his epiphany (knock on wood).

~Andi