I feel like we are nearing the finish line of this potty training experience. There were many things that frightened the daylights out of me when I was told we were having twins. Among changing twice the diapers, two teething kids, and the expense of raising two more children, I DREADED potty training two children at once!
So, I just didn't.
I'm always scared to say this for fear all mothers will hate me, but we had the easiest time potty training Alena. She was trained in two days and I can remember just a handful of accidents we had after that moment. All the fears I had and nightmarish stories mothers told me about just didn't happen.
Because she was so easy, I knew the next two would be much more difficult! (I couldn't be THAT lucky).
Lauren started to show interest soon after turning 2 and moving into the next classroom at daycare. Many of her friends in that room were older and using the potty so she went along with it. Unfortunately, I was not at all prepared to jump into this, (we were busy packing the house up and figuring out where we were going to live as we would be homeless in less than 3 weeks!). So I let this moment pass and pretty soon she reverted back to not wanting to use the potty at all. I really regret not running with it when she was interested but you have to be ALL IN with potty training. No dipping in your toes or wading up to your knees. Nope, you must be fully submerged for a successful experience.
It took all of us a month or so to adjust to our new living situation and soon after the new year, Lauren seemed interested again. I wasn't going to miss this opportunity a second time so we went for it. At school she was sat on the potty every 2 hours so we mimicked this at home. She also got to enjoy juice, a treat in our house, to force her to drink and potty more. After a few days we felt adventurous enough to run a couple errands, sans diaper.
Although we had lots and lots of success stories, so was scared to poop on the potty. I. Tried. Everything. We had many, many, many accidents-some at home, some away from home and there were numerous times I was ready to jump out of the pool and throw in the towel. But, I knew we needed to push forwards. I threw away a lot of Minne Mouse, My Little Pony and Hello Kitty underwear. I've never been one to carry a diaper bag with me when we are out and about. I found I never utilized it and it was too cumbersome. Unfortunately this came back to bite me a few times. She shopped commando with me a couple times!
Now 5 months later, I can say we haven't had an accident in quite a while. She's got this potty thing down!
One down, one to go.
I waited, and waited, and waited to start potty training Caleb, watching for all the telltale signs. They were never there. About 6 weeks ago, we noticed he was going potty pretty frequently at daycare so we started working on it at home too. He protested every time we wanted to take him to the potty. As the days went by, he was having more and more success at school (and some success at home). Soon he was waking up dry from naps and his teacher told me to take home his diapers. What!? I never thought this day would come.
I can honestly say that neither Justin or I, nor Papa or Grandma potty trained that boy. The credit goes to his two daycare providers. I may gasp at the amount of money we pay for daycare every month but it has been worth every dime, (for numerous reasons)!
He still has some accidents and has needed a little bribing to work on #2, (a tractor ride on Papa's mow mow works well), but I think I can say I have two potty trained 2.5 year olds!
We are on the go people so they've had to adjust to using bathrooms EVERYWHERE. They are pros at using public potties, porta potties, peeing in a bucket on the boat and pottying in nature. C especially likes to pee on trees (it's a good thing we won't have trees in our new neighborhood!).
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| He will hate me for this some day |
We still have nighttime training to work but that will come with time. I can manage using 2 diapers a day, compared to up to 20 diapers a day when they were first born. I am so glad to be past this stage but it's another sign that these two are growing way too fast!
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