This morning we turned the clocks back. Fall back, Spring ahead. An extra hour to sleep in, right? Wrong. Not if you are a baby.
After living through this each of the last 6 years, I can confirm that babies will still wake up at the same time no matter what. In Thing 4’s case, that means we were up at 4:30am today instead of 5:30am. At that hour there are far fewer options on TV other than infomercials.
Six year olds have a way of cutting right to the point and asking whatever comes across their mind. While I was battling with Thing 3 one morning to change his Pull-Up and get dressed for preschool (a daily occurrence that I can count on as sure as the sun coming up), Thing 1 asked me “When will Thing 3 be potty trained?”
Ah, yes, when indeed. We have been engaged in potty training Thing 3 since the bootcamp back in July. We’re now well into October and while there has been definite progress since then, we are very far from declaring mission accomplished.
How much progress? He generally will go potty 3-4 times a day now at preschool. Except when he decides he doesn’t want to for whatever reason. What reasons could he have for wanting to be in a wet Pull-Up when he knows how to use the potty? This is Thing 3, remember. It might be the wrong day of the week, or he could be wearing the wrong color shirt, or he might not like how the teacher asked him, or he may have heard a sound he doesn’t like. At home, he still wants no part of the potty except the last few nights he has gone just before bed like his brothers. Oh yeah, he still has yet to poop in a potty, preferring to do his business in the Pull-Ups.
It’s one step forward, two steps back.? Sometimes I think Thing 4 may be potty trained before her brother even with the nearly 3 year head start.
Disclosure: I get paid as a Pull-Ups Potty Training Partner.
Let me give a summary of how just about every day with Thing 3 goes these days. He wakes up around 6:30am in a bad mood, crying for no particular reason until he has his cup of milk like a two-pack-a-day smoker has to have his first smoke.
It takes little to set him off on a tantrum and I can never predict what will set him off, but I can predict with near certainty there will be something that does. It could be the wrong color cup or cereal bowl. It could be the wrong show on tv. Or the wrong color shirt. Oh, I always ask which one he wants first but I now realize they are all the wrong ones. The tantrum is coming. And you can forget about even suggesting the “P” (potty) word to him or you’re in for a world of hurt.
At night, we have a similar ritual around bedtime. No matter what it’s always the wrong pajamas. Then he doesn’t want to brush his teeth or go to bed. So he bangs on the wall, throws books in his room, and his new favorite act of defiance spitting on the wall. This goes on for a good 30 minutes until we all exhaust ourselves.
I assumed the time in between these lovely bookends to my day went much the same. This is the time Thing 3 is at preschool. That is, until we got this note from his teacher:
Thing 3 “is such a delight to have in our classroom. He is very bright – sometimes silly and sometimes serious – a good combination. He is doing well at number recognition and we are practicing our letters. He now comes to us if he needs to go potty – sometimes it has already happened and sometimes we make it there on time!! He is very helpful in the classroom and a very caring, sharing young man!!”
Seriously, this is the same kid? Sure, I’ve seen glimpses of this model child but it’s completely surrounded by the crying, spitting, throwing, and terrorizing. I guess there is some reason for hope.
When this is the picture at 6pm on Sunday, you know it has been a very, very long weekend. There is no mourning the end of the weekend over here.
It is 6:02am and all 4 kids are STILL SLEEPING! If this happened every day, I could be amazingly productive and write lots of blog posts every morning. I could get used to this. But I probably shouldn’t.
Oh well, looks like I just jinxed myself. I hear footsteps coming downstairs and Thing 4 is awake and needs a bottle fast. It was nice while it lasted.
Sometimes it’s best to rip the band aid off quickly. ?There is a very brief amount of pain but then it’s over. ?That has been the case with getting Thing 3 to do major new things. ? It’s how we got him to move from his crib to a bed. ?No slow transition, just cold turkey.
That was going to be our approach to potty training him last week. ?We had the marathon training session on Sunday, then sent him to daycare in underwear on Monday. ?He had some accidents but generally sat on the potty willingly.
Then came Tuesday. ?He went into meltdown mode when the teachers tried to get him to go potty. ?He screamed. ?He fought. ?There were reports of poop on the floor, and something about him pooping on a teacher’s hand (not something for which I wanted to ask for clarification). ?So on the teacher’s recommendation, we pulled the plug on potty training for a while.
Yeah, ripping the band aid off quickly works sometimes. ?But other times, the bandage is stuck to the wound, and pulling it off opens it back up and it starts bleeding. ?Metaphorically speaking, that’s what we got this week.
Anyone have any great potty training ideas for Thing 3? ?Maybe ask one of the potty training experts. ?Oh, wait, that’s supposed to be me.
We knew this was coming. But that doesn’t make it any easier. We delayed as long as we could, knowing the difficult road that was ahead. Now, we can’t put it off any longer. It’s time to potty train Thing 3.
Most every transition has been tough with him. Like all three year olds, he is a creature of habit and routine. But Thing 3 takes routine to the extreme. His daily routines sometimes border on the bizarre. Every detail is important, from which episode of Diego to watch, which color cereal bowl he uses, who opens the car door, and on and on. It’s a delicate act that we have all but perfected.
Until a new milestone occurs that throws a wrench into his carefully scripted world. Moving from a crib to a bed was a big deal. New shoes? Watch out. New classroom at daycare? Forget about it.
And so, we have dreaded potty training. We’ve been casually introducing him but he’ll have none of it. Now with just one month to go before he moves up to preschool, where being potty trained is a requirement, we are forcing the issue.
Yesterday was 12 hours of potty training bootcamp. We threw away the diapers (or so he thinks) and I watched him like a hawk all day, and offered him bribes of candy to sit on the potty. I had to clean pee off the carpet more than once but cold turkey is the only way to go with him. It was marginally successful.
Today we sent him to daycare in underwear and with four extra changes of clothes. He came home wearing underwear but with a pull-up underneath. For him, that’s actually progress.? It’s going to be a long, long week.
Sometimes the best intentions yield bad results. Last week, for Mothers Day, Thing 1 pledged to help. He even made this in school. How adorable.
So, with Thing 1 leading the way, he and Thing 2 set out to clean the basement. They may even have told me first. I don’t remember, they tell me a lot of stuff.? SuburbanMommy was enjoying her Mothers Day outside the house, so I had my hands full.?? I’m not sure what they were doing, I was just glad they weren’t fighting.? I assumed cleaning the basement meant what it always had until that point, which consisted of picking up all the toys and balls and other stuff.
A little while later, I spotted Thing 2 on his way to the basement. He was wearing goggles and had a roll of paper towels. His socks were soaking wet.
Me: “What are you guys doing down there?”
Thing 2: “We’re cleaning”
It was time to take a look.? With Thing 4 in my arms, I went to the basement to check out this cleaning operation.? I found the basement carpet was wet.? Really wet.? There were puddles of water on the floor in the bathroom.? Several towels were soaking wet.? They were wetting the towels, then carrying them, dripping wet, to parts of the basement to “clean” them.? How adorable.? To be more efficient, Thing 1 instructed Thing 2 to use the other sink at the wet bar.? Now there were two sources of puddles on the floor.
Let’s look at the bright side. They were trying to help. How often does that happen? They were also working together without fighting. That’s a good thing.? After using nearly an entire roll of paper towels to soak up the water, I asked:
“Is there anything else you cleaned I should know about?”
“No.” Then he thought about it. “Yes.”
“What?”
“The pillows”
They had taken the pillows from the couch and held them under the water in the sink to wash them.? Then put them back on the couch.?? Adorable.