Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

We had such a great morning!  And Nicholas jumped another huge hurdle in the potty training journey!  We hadn’t been to the pool in awhile so today we decided to go.  I didn’t entirely trust him to not put him in a swim diaper so he wore one.  He knows it as “swim pants” so at least there is no diaper in the name to him.  I just assumed if he had to go, then he’d take advantage of the diaper.  Well, I was wrong!  He told me once that he had to go, so we went.  Of course I didn’t bring our new cushie folding potty seat, so he was faced with a regular toilet.  He freaked and we went back in the water.  About 10 minutes later, same thing.  He refused to sit on the toilet and we went back to the water.  I told him it was okay to pee in the swim pants if he had to go.  I even asked if he wanted to go home to use the potty because he obviously had to go and he said no.  Then 10 minutes after that, he tells me again “potty” so we go yet again.  This time he insists I take off his swimsuit and “swim pants”, so I oblige, wipe off the seat as much as I can and he sits right down to do his business.  Wow, was I shocked!  And so proud!  We’ve been out several times since we started potty training, but he never has had to go so using a public restroom hasn’t been an issue yet.  I never thought the first time would be at the pool!  When we got home he got a super cool prize for his accomplishment- a bubble gun!  This is seriously the best $3 I have spent in a long time! Such a fun, awesome toy!

Also, while we were at the pool he did some new things in the water.  He put his face right into the water!  All on his own!  And was absolutely fine afterwards!  He also tried to swim by himself (laying on his tummy and saying “kick feet” while actually doing it!) and jumped off the edge into the water.  All in all, it was a great morning and I am so proud of our big boy!

Yes, after a week of being couped up in the house we got brave and ventured out today with a very irritable, potty training little man.  For some reason he had been super duper cranky since yesterday.  I mean just crazy and not himself.   One example is that he got hysterical to the point of gagging himself when I dared tried to take his pj shirt off to get dressed this morning.  Needless to say, he went out today with his dinosaur pajama shirt and shorts on.  Tylenol didn’t even seem to help, in case it was his last molar coming in.  We thought maybe he was just really bored of being home for so long.  We are usually out at least every other day so this had been a big change in addition to the whole potty training transition.

We decided to go to Walmart of all places for cheeseburger bread and pickles- lunchtime essentials in our house.  He did well there and it didn’t take very long, so we pressed our luck with lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  Nicholas inhaled his 6 count nugget meal and had a blast playing with “friends” on the playground.  As they came in, he addressed them by the color shirt they had on.  There was an “orange friend” and a “blue friend”.  We’re encouraging him to ask friends what their names are rather than simply saying “hi friend, whatcha doing?” but is hasn’t quite sunk in yet!  He threw a few fits, one of which was in the bathroom when he insisted that I change his diaper despite the fact that he didn’t have one on, but overall I think it did him (and us) some good.  And he stayed dry!!  So proud of him for that!!

He was still a bit cranky when we got home but after a 2+ hour long nap, he woke up a new man.  Happy, playful and sweet.  Just like the little guy we all know and love.   Man, did we miss him and are thrilled he decided to come back.

He did have one tiny accident this evening because he didn’t get to the potty in time.  Which really isn’t that bad for a week into potty training!  He’s still trying to understand that he can stop playing to go potty and when he’s done, his toys will still be there waiting for him.  One notable thing today was that while playing out front in the sprinkler, he stopped to come inside to go potty!  I was so impressed!  I thought for sure he’d take advantage of being soaked and just pee in his swimsuit without Mommy noticing.  But nope, he took a potty break like a big boy!  We are just so proud of him!!!

You have to have a sense of humor with potty training… I mean c’mon, look at what you’re dealing with.   And Nicholas will love me one day for sharing these stories with his internet public.  Anyways, he sure made us laugh today.  This afternoon he awoke from his nap with a stinky pull up.  While cleaning him up, we put the poop in the toilet to flush it but before we did, he looked in there and with wide eyes said “wow, big poop!”.  I guess he was proud!  Later this evening, he sat down on the potty to pee.  Then said “push da poop out!” in an attempt to do just that I suppose.   Well, instead he farted.  Then looks up at me with the funniest expression and says “silly poop!” and giggles.   I just love that boy.

Well, days 4 and 5 went pretty well.  And day 6 is off to a great start with 3 successful trips and no accidents.  Nicholas tells me when he has to go #1 and does it in the potty like a champ.  However, #2′s are an issue at the moment and he has had a couple accidents.  He knows he is supposed to do it on the potty, he tells me that, but I think is afraid to try.  I am sure he’ll figure it out but with more or less one chance a day to try and get to the potty for it, its a slower process.  All in all, he’s doing great and we are so proud!! We might even put shorts on him and leave the house soon…

Well, today was day 3 of the infamous “3 day method”.  I am not sure at what point we can declare Nicholas “potty trained” but he is pretty darn close if you ask me!  He had 14 successful trips to the potty today.  That means he told us before starting to pee, kept his underwear dry while getting to the bathroom and peed a good amount in the potty.  Awesome!!! He did have 2 accidents, one of which was poop and the other a tiny bit of pee.  However, he was very upset about it.  Like he had failed somehow, which I suppose is a good thing that he knows he isn’t supposed to do it.  He got lots of hugs to cheer him up and encourage him.  I think its just a totally new sensation to poop on a potty so it’ll take a couple tries to get it down.   He seems to try but gets almost scared and wants to leave.  There aren’t as many opportunities to try as there are with pee so it’ll take longer I suppose.  We still did a pull up at nap and bedtime, but I think we may try to phase out the naptime one in a couple of weeks if he keeps going as well as he did today.

One thing that he’s decided to do is refuse to put underwear back on after going potty.  He runs out of the bathroom and sits on a towel in front of the door half naked.  No idea why except perhaps he prefers to go commando!   By the afternoon, I stopped fighting it and after a few minutes he’d usually put them back on willingly, or Daddy could get them back on him.

As with any other major change/happening in his life, he is clinging to me.  He is totally a mommy’s boy and gets upset when Matthew tries to take him to the potty.  He always wants me to pick him up, he wants me to take him to the potty, etc.  Poor Matthew has gotten stuck with all the clean up because of it!   Well, he gets to meet him as he comes out of the bathroom with MnM rewards so its not all bad for Daddy!  He has been having lots of playtime with Daddy too.  I think just the fact that we have been on top of his every move for 3 days straight without leaving the house is getting to us.  We’ve baked cookies, made jello jigglers, pizza, watched movies, etc. to pass the time but its still be a blur of a weekend.  Plus its a huge change in habits for him, so he’s bound to react to that in some way.

We might brave leaving the house tomorrow to grab dinner or something.  I am so nervous about leaving a puddle wherever we go.  But heck, he’s already puked in the playground at Chick-Fil-A so he might as well pee there too!! As gross as it is, I am sure he wouldn’t be the first to have done it.  We’ll see how the day goes!  If he does as well as he did today, we will give it a try.  All in all, we are extremely proud of him and the progress he has made in 3 short days.  He is such an amazing little man!

Today started off similar to yesterday.  Shortly after he woke up, we took off his “sleeping underwear” and put on “awake underwear”.  I’ll admit part of me really wanted to keep the pull up on for convenience sake but I knew that wouldn’t be helping anything.  Within 15 minutes, he had an accident.  He had one incident first thing where he freaked out while peeing on the potty, got up and in the process doused me and the bathroom floor but he was mostly calm the rest of the day.  That sprinkler action happened like 3 times yesterday, so that in and of itself was progress today.   I only changed clothes twice today (both before nap) verses the 4 times yesterday too!

Most of the morning consisted of him starting to pee, he’d say potty and keep peeing while we ran him there (leaving a trail!) then maybe half the time finish on the potty.  This was huge because it showed that he’s made the association between the sensation of peeing and the potty.   He just had to get the timing down.  The amount in which he peed increased from yesterday too, again showing more control and the ability to hold it- more progress!  We did a pull up for nap and he slept well.  He had been gassy and uncomfortable in the morning from not pooping in a day (he is a very regular, daily pooper) but was hesitant to poop on the potty.  As expected though, he woke up with a poopy pull up.  Not ideal, but at least he felt better.

The afternoon just got better and better!  For a while he used his new word- NO.  Until just a few days ago, if he didn’t want something he’d shake his head and sort of grunt.  But now he is able to tell you very clearly, NO.  We’d say “tell Mommy or Daddy when you need to go potty”, to which he’d say “no”.  After going potty, we’d say “let’s put big boy underwear back on”, to which he’d say “nope”.  *sigh* Fortunately, Mommy and Daddy have veto power and put them on him anyways.  He really didn’t put up a fight to them and we certainly didn’t force them on him, I think he was just asserting some control and independence, which is the name of the game really.  For a couple of hours he stopped saying potty and just started to pee or grabbed himself, so we rushed him to the potty where he would finish peeing or just pee.  Which was still good!  We had to call Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa a few times to brag to them about how great Nicholas was doing.  He was happy to talk with them! And push buttons…  This was another tip from the method- brag about how well he is doing to other people where he can overhear.

Then right after dinner- a breakthrough.  He was playing cars at his shelves when he said “potty pee pee!”.  I ran him to the potty, quickly pulled down his DRY underwear and he sat down and peed.  A lot!  I cannot tell you how excited I was!  A little bit later, he had an accident and we rushed to the potty.  He didn’t finish on the potty, but while sitting there kept looking down saying “pee pee, pee pee” like he was willing himself to go!  He even seemed upset when I pulled off the wet underwear.  I think this is huge progress because he was upset that he had an accident, knowing he needs to pee in the potty.  After lots of hugs and encouragement, he was okay.  Then a little bit later, we were laying on the floor reading when all of a sudden he got up, said “potty!” and ran there.  I pulled down his again DRY underwear and he peed a good bit in the potty!  So TWICE in one night he did it exactly right!  Then if that wasn’t impressive enough, at bathtime we told him to try to go pee before his bath.  So he sat down, peed without trouble and that was that.  Wow.

So tonight we aren’t nearly as exhausted as we were last night because we didn’t run to the potty quite as much today. But more importantly, we are extremely proud of Nicholas’ progress.  And of Matthew and I too.  Its a terribly trying process and with Matthew and I doing it together, it hasn’t been as stressful on just one of us.  I haven’t lost my patience really at all and for that I am proud of myself!  I don’t know a final count, but there were a lot less accidents today and we went through a lot less underwear.  We’ve had to do some laundry but mostly just towels that we’ve used to catch the trails in the living room and bathroom.   He also played and ate more like normal today.  Yesterday he was pretty antsy and uncomfortable most of the day and didn’t eat his usual amounts.  Today he ran around like a crazy little boy, played cars and ate really well.  All in all, I’d say its a successful day!  Let’s see what Day 3 brings tomorrow!  I expect some initial regression in the morning, but am completely hopeful that he has turned a corner tonight.  *knock on wood and fingers crossed*

We decided to use a “3 day” method.  Basically you have the kiddo throw away all of his diapers and go cold turkey to big kid underwear.  Then you do not let him out of your sight for 3 days straight in order to catch all accident “mid-stream” and get them to the potty.  Eventually the idea is that he will begin to recognize his own body’s signals for when he needs to go and associate that with the bathroom and the potty.  It is also all about positive reinforcement and not giving the kid the idea that accidents are bad- they are learning experiences.  The author insists that it will “click” by the end of day 3.  Now I know many people who have done this… some it works on day 1, others day 6 but it does work.   We figure that he is breaking a 2.5 year old habit cold turkey, so its going to be hard and take some time.

We had talked up going to the potty, wearing big boy underwear and all for a few days prior.  I also gathered many supplies, such as a neat 2 in1 toilet seat that Nicholas helped install.   Also 21 pairs of Cars and Thomas underwear, MnMs, stickers, a sticker book, small prizes for when he does something very cool, disinfecting wipes and flushable wipes.  And we made sure to put a bottle of wine in the fridge for us.   We hear its a stressful process and wine may help!

Here’s how day 1 went down…

We woke up as usual and ate breakfast.  Then after breakfast, Nicholas and I went around looking for all the diapers.  *He* threw them into a bag and into the trash.  It was time for big boy underwear!  He proudly donned his Mater underwear, I showed him the potty and the phrase of the day became “Tell Mommy or Daddy when you need to go potty”.  Well, the morning was very hard!  We put the underwear on at 9am and by 10 he had had 3 accidents.  We were sort of hopeful by 10:15am because he asked to go potty where as before he didn’t even seem to notice he was going.  It all went downhill from there!  Whenever he’d sit on the potty, he would cry and was just so uncomfortable from holding it and only releasing a tiny bit at a time.  But he wouldn’t sit long enough to do much.  By naptime we were all pretty tired and had countless accidents.  Seriously I lost count after we had to start rinsing out and drying the 21 pairs (before Noon!).  I’ve never known a person to pee so much.  We had planned do just go all out and use underwear at naptime but after our morning, we figured that we all needed a break so we used a pull up (despite my initial hesitance to them).  He knows them as “big boy sleeping underwear”.  The rest must have done him some good because the afternoon was a lot better.  A lot less hysteria and crying.  A lot more accidents too, so many that Daddy had to go buy 14 more pairs of underwear!! Which he also went through by bedtime.  However, he has already made progress!! One in that he’s not freaking out on the potty or when he has to go, but he is saying “potty” and running there when he pees.  Most times he doesn’t make it in time to finish on the potty, but at least he knows pee means potty.   And he did get MnM’s for each time he did pee on the potty and stickers for times when he told us he needed to go.  He also got a little Cars helicopter for all his hard work this afternoon.   All in all, we are SO proud of him for the progress he’s made so far in just one day.  And we hope he keeps it up tomorrow!

We visited the a local fire station this morning with some of our playgroup friends.  Nicholas had a blast!!  Please note his firetruck shirt and the firetruck in his hand.  He was just a bit excited when I told him where we were going this morning!  Now he loves firetrucks, but I almost expected him to freak out and not want anything to do with the actual truck since it was so big and all.  Well, I was WRONG.  He climbed up in it by himself and then refused to get out.  He high-fived all the firemen, even the one all dressed up in his gear which could have been a bit intimidating.  He even slid down the pole with the help of Mr. Zach, the fireman!  Everyone there was really nice and showed the kids a good time.  Thank you Apex Fire Station #3!

We’ve been having a cold front here in NC and enjoying lovely 83 degree weather (as opposed to the 100+ we had last week).  So to get outside, we went to the Zoo for the day.  We talked the whole way there about the elephants, lions, monkeys and bears that we would see there.  He seemed excited.  We tried to see lemurs, giraffes, lions and zebras first but he only wanted to see the elephants.  We got to them, he saw them and then was ready to go!   Crazy kid!  We saw a few more exhibits, had a picnic lunch complete with goose parade then visited the other half of the zoo, North America, to see polar bears, sea lions and black bears.  We never made it past the polar bears because he lived next to the playground.

Nicholas’ favorite parts of the entire trip- the “train bus” (AKA Tram) and the playground!