Clarification

Tommy is not potty trained. Period. Not even close.

You can tell because there is still a "bucket-o-poo" smell in his bedroom every time I deposit a new diaper into the bucket-o-poo.

It's just that Tommy's not scared of the potty. But who would be when it's as comfy as the rocking chair, and gets almost as many stories?

I have to say that the best part of introducing the potty when he's this young is that he's pretty much CONSTANTLY peeing or pooping. So it would take a lot of effort to plant him on the potty for more than 30 seconds and get NOTHING out of it. Right? Right.

Until last night.

When I planted him on the potty and read a story or two and went to pick him up, saw the empty bowl, had a moment of "dang it...." and THEN got sprayed. Because apparently my moving him triggered the "pee now!" reflex.

Now for those of you who want to know more about Elimination Communication here's what I interpret the point to be: don't spend the first 2-3 years of your kids life training them to pee their pants, then expect them to quit in a few days. Which oddly enough works....

Of course normal potty training totally works, we can tell by all the human beings not walking around peeing their pants until they get pregnant again at which point potty training seems to become irrelevant.

But this way, you're teaching your kid from the beginning that there are appropriate places to do your business, and inappropriate places to do your business. Potty = appropriate. Pants = not appropriate.

So really all I'm doing so far is trying to get him comfortable with the potty so he won't be scared of it later. And if it saves me a few poopy diapers in the meantime, bonus!

Every time he wakes up from a nap or for the morning, I plant him on the potty and we read a few books until my legs are asleep or he's sick of pounding on the grownups toilet lid. Then if it was productive we celebrate with a "hooray for poops!" dance and move on with our day. That's it.

There are die-hards out there (hi Nancy!) and they do this from like the day they come home from the hospital, and their kids are pretty much potty trained by the time they can walk. And they're brave enough to use cloth diapers and everything. So if you wanna learn all about how you're really supposed to do it, you should stalk someone like her. Or at least read the archives from The Mother's Lounge because it's far better explained there.

The truth is I'm far too much of a sissy to do it hard core. And entirely too squeamish to deal with the consequences on days that I'm simply too lazy to read The Napping House any more times. Even though Tommy laughs when the boy "bumps the grandma!" every time. So I can't commit.

So if I count successes by deposits made, I freakin' rock. If I counted failures by diapers changed it wouldn't be such a pretty picture.

I choose to blog about the deposits made. You know, because I'm nothing if not humble.