potty training » Stop, Drop and Blog

Signing Our Way Out of Diapers

Apr 012009

I’ve mentioned before that we use sign language in this house. BigBrother used it minimally when he was pre-verbal. LittleBrother started even earlier than BigBrother did and has a large signing vocabulary. Similarly, at sixteen months, he already has a large verbal vocabulary as well. Not all of that can be attributed to signing itself, of course. Mainly, he wants to be like BigBrother. He wanted to talk early. He wanted to roll, crawl, walk and run early. And now he wants to potty train early.

I’m okay with this!

A few months ago we received Potty Training Made Easy with the Baby Signs Program Complete Starter Kit. I kept it in the box for awhile as he hadn’t shown any interest in the process at that point in time. And then, last month, he started saying the word potty. (Pah-ee! Pah-ee!) Whenever anyone would go into the bathroom, he would follow behind, talking about the potty. Then he started wanting to sit on the big potty. Then we bought him a little one. And while he hasn’t gone, he sits daily, talking about his male genitalia (pee-ahhs), pee, poop and pah-ee.

Color us shocked.

Book & Stickers So, I broke out the sign language program. I read the accompanying parent manual about why starting the training process in the 12 month to 24 month age range was a great idea. I agreed with most of what was said, having already potty trained one child. (I also know that being strict with your ideas regarding what will and will not work can set you up for failure.) The manual, however, does have many things that we agree with (especially since we potty trained BigBrother based on Elizabeth Pantley’s The No-Cry Potty Training Solution).

And then we started watching the DVD every few days. LittleBrother enjoys the real kids more than the animated babies. (He’s likely used to Signing Time videos.) We also regularly read the train book that came with the kit. (It’s a lift-the-flap book which are all hugely popular with LittleBrother right now.) While he has done nothing in the potty, we currently have a child who is not scared of the bathroom or the potty. He knows what goes on in the bathroom and the potty. He knows the appropriate signs (more, all done, potty, wash hands). And he regularly tells us when he needs a diaper change. (To boot, he also says “excuse me” (cue-me!) after he toots. Win.

I can’t tell you if he will officially train early or if he’ll be like his brother and train shortly after his second birthday. I can’t predict what will happen. I can tell you that this little kit, complete with reward stickers for when we start moving forward with this “potty train”, is a big help in our house. As BigBrother went through a phase where he was scared of the bathroom (no fault of our own as we didn’t push training), we’re hoping to avoid that with LittleBrother. Of course, having BigBrother around to show by example and encourage with words is a great training tool as well. I’d let you borrow him but, well, I like him very much.

Complete Starter Kit

I can, however, offer you this Potty Training Made Easy with the Baby Signs Program Complete Starter Kit ($39.95)! That’s right! I have one to give away! It’s the exact same one we have which means that it includes:

1. Potty Training Made Easy, a Parent’s Guide.
2. All Aboard the Potty Train DVD
3. All Aboard the Potty Train lift-the-flap book.
4. Stickers!
5. All Aboard the Potty Train Conductor’s (wooden) Whistle (yes, noisy).

It can be yours! There are a few different ways to enter.

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me a funny story about potty training. Whether it’s your child, your sibling, your friend’s child or yourself. Make me giggle. Because a sense of humor is needed while potty training! (I remember that much!) You may leave a comment like this once.

2. Tweet about this contest, copy/pasting the following into your tweet stream: Enter the Potty Training Made Easy giveaway over @FireMom’s blog: http://tinyurl.com/SDBptsigns Kit includes book, DVD, stickers & whistle! After you tweet, grab the URL to the individual tweet and paste it in a separate comment here. You may do this once a day for the duration of the giveaway!

3. Blog about the giveaway on your blog, linking back to this post and the Potty Training Made Easy website! Make your post about another funny story regarding potty training, fears about the process or what your plans are thus far. Come back and leave the link to your blog post in a separate comment. You may do this once.

The giveaway will be open through Monday, April 13, 2009 at noon (EDT). I will close comments and pick a winner via the random number generator at random.org. I will then contact the winner by email. The winner has 24 hours to respond before I move on to the next random winner. Winnings will be shipped the following day after claim with delivery confirmation and insurance. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best of luck… in the giveaway and with potty training! (And if this giveaway doesn’t apply to you, please feel free to pass it on to your friends with children who may or may not be potty training sometime soon!)

Trick to Potty Training: Send Kid to Grandma’s! & Stickers!

Parenting 13 Responses »

Mar 192008

We had been stalled on potty training for awhile. Sometimes he would go, sometimes he would not. He was always very excited when he went but couldn’t be bothered to remember to go on his own or be interrupted by his Mean Awful Interrupting Parents. That said? Pull Ups are a joke. A complete, utter, doomed-for-failure joke. BigBrother had no problem doing either job in a Pull Up and continuing on his merry way. We decided to stop wasting our money.

Dancing in His Underwear BigBrother and I then took a trip to the Big Store with Everything from Tomatoes to Underwear. He picked out two packages of Cars underwear and one package of Thomas underwear. (He had another package at home.) He put each package on the counter at the cash register and said “Thank You” as he set each one down. We made a big deal about the underwear, let me tell you. We put them on and went for it.

We failed miserably.

Okay, maybe not miserably. But we were making the mistake of letting him stay in a diaper in the morning until after he pooped. And then switching to underwear. No go. Has to be all underwear, all day. He was getting frustrated. We were getting frustrated. And then he went to stay with Nana for the weekend.

And the Kid only had one accident. Say what?

Stickers, man, stickers. Previous to this experience, my texture and touch resistant child would not touch a sticker which is why we did not employ this idea. However, he seems to have moved past the ick-factor. Nana took a piece of construction paper, got some stickers and he was rewarded with one each time. When we picked him up, I decided I’d make a chart and we’d continue in the same fashion the next morning.

It’s going well. He occasionally gets distracted by trucks, cars, trains, balls, dust floaties in sun beams and air in general. But, for the most part, all of the pee is going in the potty. He’ll occasionally start to pee, realize what is going on, stop, scream, “PEE MOMMY,” run to the bathroom, wait for me to hurdle over the Exersaucer and run to the bathroom behind him, help him with his underwear, and help him get situated and then he’ll finish his pee-business. I consider that definite success. Yes, we need to get a new pair of underwear at that point but that’s why we have 17 or 18 pair for the Kid. His sticker chart is filling up after three days of the idea. In fact, I need to go to the store tonight or tomorrow and buy more stickers. (Also? His idea of “chart” is different than mine. I would be all straight lines and organization. He’s all about layering stickers and abstraction. It’s visual torture for me.)

Also? Pantslessness. He’s just been running around in a shirt and underwear all week. I did turn up the heat a little but it’s also been a smidge warmer than freezing so he’s not uber-cold. I’d put socks on the kid but he’s like me and can’t have anything on his feet. So, cold feet it is.

The thing that’s not working for us? Potty training BigBrother while breastfeeding LittleBrother on demand. Why? BigBrother chooses times when I sit down in a dark, quiet room with the Distractable Nurser named LittleBrother to run off and do his #2 business in his underwear. He then comes in and tells me, “I pooped.” Yes, I can smell that, Buddy. So, I have to unlatch LittleBrother, set him down in his crib or on my bed (which he rolls now so I should stop doing that) and go deal with the accident in a calm manner. But, interrupting a feeding makes LittleBrother scream. Which then upsets BigBrother. And so both boys end up crying. And my nerves fray and frazzle. Of note: I did ask BigBrother if he had to go use the potty before I sat down to feed LittleBrother. He did pee at that point. But no to the pooping. I’m not sure how to get past this point.

And so, yes, successes are happening everyday. The best part about this whole process? He will take our faces in his hands when we do something that he perceives as good and say, “I’m so proud of you,” as he hears it from us no less than fifteen times a day now. There’s something heart-warming about having your child say that to you.

I’m sure we’ll get there someday. Right?