This is our John. There are many Johns out there, but this one is ours. Our daily life with John, celebrating the insignificant details that make up life.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

I'm a big kid now! John uses the potty



John used the potty for the first time today. At the doctor's appointment, he said to not even worry about potty training until he was 2, and that boys usually took until 3 before they were ready. But today I changed his poopy diaper and he wouldn't let me put a new one on, so I let him run around naked for awhile. So, he went to play with his truck, look at his books, play with his coloring pencils etc, naked. I had to go upstairs and use the bathroom, so when I was done, I had John take his potty downstairs, just in case.

Eventually, he was sitting next to me, naked, watching TV. He said "uh oh!" and got up and went to the potty. However, he wasn't trying to use it, he was just messing with it. He was lifting up the seat and pulling at the little boy pee shield thing that pops up. So, I thought he was just investigating. This potty my mom bought (when he was about 6 months old) makes music when it gets wet. I think John was trying to get it to go off, he was messing with the little metal conduits at the bottom.

All of a sudden, he started peeing on the leg of the potty! On the carpet! I ran over and said "Uh oh! Pee goes IN the potty, not On it!" And then I figured out he didn't want to sit on the potty while the boy pee shield was up, so I popped it off (its detachable) and he sat down and finished peeing in the potty. Then he sat there a minute and peed again in the potty. I told him Good Boy! Then I said we had to go flush the pee and wash our hands. He started washing his hands IN THE PEE! Ahhh! I picked him up and took him to wash in the sink (which he loves to do). The potty music didn't go off, because he managed to unplug it when he was messing with it. Too bad!

I let John wash his hands for 10 minutes while I cleaned up the carpet and dumped the potty in the toilet. Then I let him flush!

Then we went downstairs (John still buck naked) to go tell Nana what a good boy he was! After that, I had to leave for work.

Apparently, Nana tried to get him to go potty a few more times, but he just peed on the floor near the potty. He doesn't quiet get it yet, but he's certainly thinking about it. We decided to give it a rest for awhile and wait for him to want to try again. He isn't ready to pull down any pants or pull-ups yet. He can just barely predict he will pee just before he does it. The doctor said to not even think about potty training until after 2 years old. Hopefully, he will just train himself when the time comes!


After work, I went to the used book store across the street and bought all their potty related material and warped the books up separately. When I got home, I gave him his first present, a board book about using the toilet and going potty with a button that you can push to make a flush sound. He likes to flush and flush it.

The day before this, by the way, he peed and pooped in the bath! Yuck! I made Charles clean that mess up!