Do you need to go?

I've been try to toilet train Aaron for some time now but without any significant success to brag about yet. Just like with anything else, I constantly consult Google for more tips. I haven't come across much new information lately but I had a few good laughs about how the various sites describe the process:

From Parenting and Child Health:
Spreading poo around
* Doing poo feels good, and parents show a lot of interest in poo while toddlers are being toilet trained, so it is very normal for toddlers to be interested in their own poo.
* Most normal toddlers get some poo on their hands and spread it around at least a couple of times.

Babycenter:
When you demonstrate for your toddler, it's helpful to explain what's going on as you're using the bathroom and let her see afterward what you "made."

Dr. Greene
If your child is afraid of failure, it is paramount that when he or she does make a mistake, your response is not an exasperated or a punishing one. Instead say something like, "Oops, there it went. Someday soon they're all going to land in the potty. We'll try again." (This one sounded funny but is actually something I'll have to try.)

I thought that being nappy free during his waking hours would speed up the process but so far we're keeping the place dry only because I'm constantly watching him and taking him to the bathroom. He has only made the dash to the bathroom door on his own twice so far.

Busy Little Toddler

Aaron is just so busy these days. As soon as he opens his eyes he's off on one project or other. Collecting the plastic fruits. 'Sweeping' the floor. Drawing imaginary stars and moons. Moving the water bottles from one location to another. Lining the shoes up two by two. Looking for the frog. From his point of view, there is absolutely no time to be wasted sitting on the toilet or standing around waiting to pee.

I mentioned in a much earlier post that Aaron was toilet trained before our August trip to Brisbane but somehow got untrained during our holiday. I'm still no further along in the training now. We still have the nappy free time each day to hopefully speed up the process I think we're stagnating.

OK. So I agree that I had 'trained' him to go in his nappy from birth but that was then. Its time to change! Its not time to carry on playing with the school house while making a little lake for the toy babies. Its not time to practice moping the very convenient stream that you produce yourself. "Uh Oh" was cute at first but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to keep laughing at that.

I'm sure things can only get better since he is becoming more aware of himself and is communicating more. Sticking to the toilet training plan is the way to go but there are definitely days that I wish I could just forget about it and wait until he is a lot older and can definitely feel the urges and communicate them clearly. My advise to my future self (in case of any future babies): Toilet train the baby. Not the busy toddler. And then make sure they STAY TRAINED. I found it much easier when we were training Aaron last year.

To all the experienced parents who are reading this, please leave any toilet training tips for toddlers!

A Day of Firsts

Why is he grabbing his shorts? Probably because he's feeling a little airy in there :) Today was Aaron's had his first hour without a nappy. I know that many people, especially Asians, do toilet train babies from a very young age but I haven't felt ready to do it until now. There was just too much going on when Aaron was younger.

I started taking him to the toilet after his afternoon nap a few weeks ago and now, he regularly 'goes' at that time. I should really take him for pee breaks every hour but he keeps changing his schedule and I haven't been successful at catching the non post-nap pees. He has told me twice after a nap that he needed to go so I'm taking that as a good sign and that he's recognizing what it feels like. Hopefully, a daily nappy free hour will help me identify any cues he may be giving off and also speed up the recognition in his own mind of when he should make a run for the bathroom.

As for training on No. 2s....well, he had trained himself at 11 months but somehow, when we went to Australia and then came back again, things seemed to have gone backwards to the point where he now avoids eye contact and pretends that nothing has happened after he's done it. He'll make extra efforts in his play just to avoid having to get cleaned up. No idea on this one at the moment so I'm going to leave it for now.

The other 'First' of the day is his own chair. Here he is on his big boy chair (even though its a really little one).