My daughter loved sticker charts when she was potty training.  Each time she was dry and successfully used the potty, she got a sticker.  After so many stickers, she got a small prize.

My son just isn’t in to putting stickers on a chart.  He gets upset and wants to put the sticker back on the sticker sheet (like doing a puzzle).   The way to his potty training success has been through his sweet tooth – A.K.A.  “a potty treat” (Veggie Tale gummy) each time he is dry.  When I first started with the treats I was worried he’d want potty treats forever when going potty, but after a few weeks he stopped asking for them every time.  Now they’re mostly used when we go out.

Once we had the issue of staying dry figured out, it was time to get down and dirty – I’m talking poop.  Going with the sweet tooth, he gets an M&M each time; once again that sweet tooth is working for me.   Since I wanted to really push for multiple successes in a row, I made a small potty chart just for poop.  The first one was just 3 squares; I drew a police car under the squares and told him once he poopied on the potty 3 times he’d get the police car.   (My favorite part in this was when he had 2 squares “X”ed out and he kept trying to take the pen from my hand to put an “X” on the 3…)  He had that car in just 2 days.

Right away he was actually asking me to make a potty chart.  He even got the paper out for me!  This time I tried to make it bigger – with 5 squares.  “No!  Small!” he cried when he saw it.

We settled on 4 squares, and a white helicopter (a 3 dollar find from Target that I originally got for his Christmas stocking).  All I can say is that vehicles of any kind really motivate this kid.  He had that helicopter the next day!

I’ve had a glorious 5 days of poop being only in the potty.

I know there will be set backs.  We are still on the “go potty every couple hours” routine to make sure we stay dry.  But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we’re going to get there, one little vehicle at a time.

The post Potty Training One Vehicle at a Time first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

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Things I Noticed This Week:

1. My husband is in a better mood after a motorcycle ride.
2. My son prefers his “big boy cloth underwear” over pull-ups.
3. Spray in hair color does NOT wash out in one wash on my preschooler’s blonde hair.  (Nor in 3 or 4 washes… The red just faded to pink….)
4. I get really excited about the prospect of going out on “date night” when one hasn’t happened in a while.
5. It is way too easy to spend too much money on Christmas toys when shopping online.
6. When using the broiler on the oven, things can burn quickly.
7. The dog gets stinky faster when other dogs come to visit.
8. Laundry does NOT fold itself nor put itself away.  (Okay, I knew this one already, but this week has verified it.)
9. The kids love having visitors.
10. The kids love craft time.

What have you noticed this week?

The post Things I Noticed This Week first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

But today’s potty training story focuses mostly on his big sister.

Little man had been sitting on his frog potty for a while before quiet time, and when he got up there was a little, tiny poop.  “Yeah!  You poopied on the potty!”  I said clapping excitedly.

He jumped up, ready to get his M&M reward for pooping on the potty.  That’s when the preschooler showed her new 4 year old wisdom, “Mommy, don’t you know you don’t need to celebrate when a kid poops?  You just give him his candy.”

Really?  From a 4 year old?  Cracked me up.

The post #Potty Training Tips from the Preschooler first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

So, here it goes, I am thankful that:

1.  Potty training is a step towards independence for my little guy, and each little step towards independence is a little piece of freedom for us all.

2.  The potty treats and cloth training pants really have taught him to realize when he is wet, and that’s a good thing.  Even as he says, “Pee my pants,” for the 5th time that day, I need to remember that – he’s learning, and that’s a good thing.

3.  Being at that stage where we can potty train in cloth pants means less money spent on store-brand pull-ups and diapers.  And any time I can save us some money it’s a good thing.

4.  Since we are still taking potty breaks every hour and 15 minutes or so, and the training pants are thick,  there isn’t enough pee in him to make a real puddle on the carpet.  That means the blankets I put down can come up for now and suddenly the living room looks cleaner without really trying.

5.  Once he’s potty trained I won’t have to wipe smooshed on poop off his butt during diaper changes.  (I realize I’ll still be wiping butts for a while, but at least it won’t be smeared everywhere.)

So, do you have something you’re working on right now that taking a moment to be thankful for might give you the kick you need?

The post Thankful for #Potty Training first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

No?  Really?

Well, I’m going to share anyway, because this OneMommy is a proud Mommy!

In preparation for the possible flooding, I covered the living room play area floor with blankets and put waterproof crib sheets on the couches.  (Pee is a lot harder to get out of a couch cushion than off the carpet, the dog has taught me that one.)

On Saturday morning, after his first potty trip, I told him he was going to wear his cloth big boy underwear.  He kept trying to get his pull-ups out instead, but eventually we got his cloth training pants on.  Mommy told him a zillion times not to pee-pee in them or poopie because the carpet would get all wet and dirty.

He isn’t at the point where he tells us he has to go, yet.  So we made sure (I should say, Mommy made sure) he went every hour and 15 minutes.  (I’m going to make that time longer as we go, but I figured some immediate success couldn’t hurt.)

He only had 2 accidents that day, one was right before bedtime, when we let him go a little longer because we were outside and it was just about time to go in and get teeth brushed and jammies on.  Not bad for a first day!

Sunday was day 2, and again Mommy reminded him over and over to keep his cloth pants dry.  Again, we only had 2 accidents.  I put him on the potty after each one, and the second time he poopied on the potty.  (Always a victory!)  I was super glad for that, because he hadn’t gone the day before, which is not his norm, and I didn’t want him to have tummy problems.  I also didn’t want to have to clean poop out of cloth training pants…

We’re staying home today, too, for day 3.  I’m hoping for continued success, and continued patience.

And those potty treatsI mentioned last time?  He loves them!  He runs around in a circle, holding his Veggie Tale gummy high in the air and belting out the Veggie Tale theme song as loud as his little lungs can sing.  (He shares one with his sister, too, so the whole family is cheering Monkey on in his potty training adventure.)

I’ll keep you posted as our potty training adventure unfolds.

Any tips you want to share?

Oh – and today is the last day to enter the hand sanitizer giveaway!  Good luck!

The post #Potty Training in Cloth Training Pants first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Potty training.

If there was a magic trick that worked for every kid, that would be spectacular.  (And just think how much parents would be willing to pay for it!)  But, alas, every kid is different.

Shortly before our son’s 2nd birthday he started showing an interest in the potty.  So, we gave it a try.  He was successful at peeing on it every.single.time.  Seriously.  I figured it would go fast with him.

But here we are 5 or 6 months later.

Now, I have to admit, we were going to Florida shortly after his birthday, so I didn’t want to get into any major potty training until after that.  And then the summer heat came.  It seems the heat does awful things to Monkey’s tummy.  Ooey, gooey, stinky things.  He would get upset that he wasn’t “dry” when we took him to the potty, so I decided to step it back a notch and not worry about “staying dry” until it got cooler.

So here we are.  With our daughter I used a “potty chart” where she got a sticker each time she pottied and was dry.  Every few days she’d earn some small reward.  Over the summer I tried that with Monkey, and it worked a little, but like I said, he would get all upset when his tummy messed up his success.

This time around I’m starting a little differently.  “Potty treats” for EVERY time he is dry.  (Hey, the boy has a sweet tooth, and it’s time I use it to my advantage!) And boy, did I find the perfect potty treats – Veggie Tales gummies!  (He is constantly singing the Veggie Tale theme song lately…)

I do want some long-term success, too, though…  So, since he is starting to like Thomas the Train, I told him if he stays dry for 7 days he could get the aquarium cars (with a shark, which he loves).  We have a little mini chart on the fridge to X off the days. 

The first 2 days he stayed dry.  Then we took a trip to the aquarium, and he stayed dry there, but he was sooo tired when we got home, it just didn’t happen.  (I know staying home would have helped big time, but Daddy was off that day and we had promised the kids we’d go…)

But since he stayed dry all that time, I’m thinking he can do it, he just needs to want to stay dry.  With our preschooler cloth training pants helped her learn that real fast.  So, this weekend, I’m taking the leap.  We’re staying home and he’s wearing his cloth “big boy” pants!

He had a couple solid days with pull-ups and we’ve been using the potty for a few good months… Cross your fingers, people, because it could be a wild, wet weekend at There’s Just One Mommy’s house!

The post Potty Training first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.