Potty training

We started off potty training all wrong. The first time Moose told me he had to pee, I freaked out. The next time I was a bit more prepared, and now I feel like we are seasoned potty trainers. (except for last week when I forgot a change of clothes at Mimi's house and we had to ride home in our diaper sans pants)

We started off rewarding each pee-pee with a couple M&Ms. Three or four. This started to backfire when he would squeeze out one molecule of pee just to get some M&Ms (I don't know about you but I can always squeeze out a molecule or two when given the chance). So anytime he wanted a snack, we went pee.

I managed to halt this by "running out" of M&Ms. Soon he seemed to realize he would not be rewarded for peeing anymore (he however did not seem to realize that dry pants in itself is it's own reward)

Now we have started poo-poo in the potty. *thank you, thank you* I feel like I should get to bow and accept some applause for the amount of laundry I've done the last couple weeks. Because of the fabulousness of this situation we are still rewarding with a mini cookie.

I tried to pull a fast one the other morning and reward him with one of his cereal "cookies" (we are eating Cookie Crisp this week) (what? it's made with whole grain) and he was not fooled. I was rewarded for my ingenuity with a full melt-down.

His recent resistance has forced me to go to battle with the Powers That Be at daycare. They were insistent that he move up to the next class, but originally they had told me he would not move until he was perfectly potty-trained. So I had to talk to three people before I finally got him held back. Both L’s mom and me managed to get them held back. They won’t be moving up for a while I think, now.

I don’t think it was a mistake. His head teacher agreed with me, so I am comfortable with our decision.

I picked him up this afternoon and had a nice note in his pocket: “Moose is doing great! No accidents today! He’s helping everyone out and showing the new kids how to help in the room. He is such a joy to have!”