Carlitos needs to be potty trained. Like, yesterday. Besides just his parents not wanting to change TWO sets of diapers, he also needs to be potty trained to go to The Little Gym camp AND to go to pre-school.
So, we have been trying to potty train him for awhile now, but I have to admit we have not been very consistent…and therefore not very successful. Oh, he “Tells it to Mommy” alright, it’s just usually after he has done it, rather than in time to make it to the bathroom. Then, the grandparents swore they could do it when all four of them were here right after the baby was born. Didn’t happen. Next, my Mother-in-Law was certain she could accomplish it when she came back to help out last week. I even told her that I had already told The Little Gym that she said she could do it in three days. She is the only person I know who is more competitive than I am, so I thought this would help ensure that she did succeed. And she helped her cause as well, by bringing the craziest, most amazing candy EVER. Please see below:
You see, my husband and I started by using stickers on a calendar months ago, but then his mom scoffed at us and told us you HAD to use candy. So we had already been using candy for months as well – in addition to the stickers. Well, then she brought these giant, monster-decorated, BLUE (hello!!! what child doesn’t love blue candy?!), gummy treats and we realized we hadn’t been using the right candy. We had, ahem, been using, you know, mini Tootsie Rolls, tiny boxes of Nerds and other completely boring left over Halloween candy. Okay, so when I saw her secret weapons I really had faith that it would finally happen. So, you can imagine my disappointment when Carlitos not only was still in diapers by the end of the week, but was actually saying he didn’t want the crack cocaine candy lollipops his Mima had brought. I had thought for sure we had him hooked enough to succumb to the potty!
I was starting to think he might be wearing diapers to his prom, when he (unknowingly, I’m sure) gave me an idea. Yesterday he started going on and on and on about wanting to go to school, and see the kids, and go to school on the school bus, on the yellow school bus, with the kids, and the school, and the bus and the… I really wish I was exaggerating, but that is honestly how 2-year-olds talk. Their ‘stories’ or ‘statements’ or whatever you want to call them, go on and on in repetitive circles and then off on random tangents and then looped back into the repetitive, and often quite random, circles again. Anyway, I realized that he just might want to go to school badly enough to give up diapers. I have to say, while he isn’t quite there yet, this is the closest he has come. For two days now he has spent most of the day wearing only underwear under his pants. (Before he refused to put on underwear at all – even over a diaper.) Granted, I have done a lot of mopping and am thanking my lucky stars he hasn’t aimed for a rug yet. I have also realized he needs more than three pairs of underwear. However, we are making progress! And it’s all thanks, not to stickers, not to candy, not to amazing, ‘did these cost $7 each?!?’ candy, but to school. Yes, I am so proud of our fabulously nerdy child. (Okay, okay, so it is the kids and the yellow bus that seem to excite him, but still.) And hopefully very soon he will be my “fabulously nerdy child who does not wear diapers.” Actually, I refuse to let him miss out on things because he is in diapers, so let me alter that and say that he WILL be potty trained by the time camp starts.
I’ll just have to give him the memo…
