This thing called potty training

I was a slacker in the potty training department. Really. I didn't read much about it, and I didn't even approach it with Asher until he was closer to three. And, when I did mention it and he seemed horrified by the potty, I just said, 'fine'. I knew he was smart enough to know when he was using the restroom, he just wasn't into the potty. So, neither was I. When he was ready, he'd be ready and I was going to wait.

Then, one day, my sister came downstairs and said, 'No more diapers for Asher. He just had a poop ball roll across the couch cushion and I'm over it.' Well, alrighty then. Bless my sister, because she wasn't the slacker here and she jumped all over this potty training thing. Asher cried and screamed like we were torturing him when she put him on the potty. He didn't care a thing about a potty prize or a sticker or a book or post-its on the wall for entertainment or anything.

There were some wet pants, which didn't phase him at all. There was a box of prizes, which he would push away and say, 'I want my diaper back.' At one point, my sister was doing some kind of ridiculous dance, playing, singing, tickling technique which made him pretty much laugh himself into peeing on the potty. I stopped working, ran down the hall and we made a huge deal out of it. We even said that Elias' banging on the piano was the 'potty song' for Asher. And that worked a time or two.

A few days in, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was neck-deep in laundry and car seat removal-washing and reinstalling (why don't they make that easier, anyway?). Then, it just clicked. He realized it wasn't the end of the world to stop what he was doing and pee on the little white potty chair. And he got a prize, too. Gasp! There was only one poop accident, and he's been a champ #2 machine ever since then. We were running out of prizes at rapid pace. 'I peed! I get a prize!' and 30 minutes later, 'I peed! I get another prize from the prize box.' And then, 'I pooped, I get two prizes!' I was digging around the house for things to put in that box until I could get back to the dollar section at Target.

My favorite story (sorry, teenage Asher) is when he declared at dinner, 'I need to poop.' He likes his privacy for that, so I told him to go ahead. This was very early in the whole process, and I didn't believe he was really going to poop in the toilet at this point. I peeped around the corner and he was standing on top of the big toilet seat. And pooping -- from the vertical position. He not only did this with ease, but he didn't make a bit of mess. It was hilarious.

And, my second favorite story was in the drive-thru at McDonald's when Asher said, 'I need to pee. I need to pee right now.' Joni grabbed the car potty from the back seat and put it in the front seat and sat Asher on it. Right about this time, I had to roll up to the pay window. The guy there looked over at Asher peeing in the front seat (literally) and said, 'You GO boy! Look at you all growing up!' Way to go, McDonald's guy. And, way to go Asher for peeing anywhere we've asked you to.

Once, we were pottyless in the car and told him to hold it until we could get to the big tree beside the road (nearest pullover spot). He bounced out, peed on the tree roadside and now thinks that every time we're trying to get to a good potty stop we are looking for a 'big tree' on which to urinate.

This was all months ago. My boy took a few days of fussing (with really only a few accidents) and fighting and WHAM, he's potty trained. We're still working on the sleep peeing situation. But, I'm not worried about that. If he needs to sleep super hard and not realize he's peeing, I'm fine with that right now.

All of this to say - thanks, Nini! And way to go, Asher! XOXO!