Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Potty Party

There are often times as you are growing as a parent where you just have to figure it out as you go. In fact, that may be the definition of what parenting is all about. Sure, you can read all kinds of books, but lets be honest....those books can help a parent know what color of poop is "okay" and how often you should be feeding the little poop factories (as if the screaming wasn't a fairly obvious clue). Mrs. B and I are continually figuring out that we don't really have any idea what we are doing.

The two year old has recently shown a strong interest in using the potty to go pee-pee. I am not so sure it is the intrinsic motivation to get out of diapers or the fact that he gets a piece of candy each time he successful uses the potty. I am guessing the candy if a far more powerful motivator. This has been reinforced by the fact that we now want to use (I use that term very loosely) the potty about every 15 minutes. Sawyer figures as long as he can produce a few drops (literally), he has done enough to warrant a Smartie. The kid is producing diapers you would swear came from a full grown man, so I am ready for this kid to be using the potty, but do I do it at the expense of future dental bills.

Continuing the potty theme, the two year old has now noticed how everybody goes to the bathroom, including the dog. Your thinking great not a problem right....WRONG. Yesterday the boy decided that he was going to emulate the dog and just squat it out while he was taking a shower, much to the horror of Mrs. B. She called me at work just to let me know how much I should appreciate going on "vacation" (that is what she has taken to calling me going to work). From all accounts, the boy, displayed pride in the accomplishment of not having used a diaper to "release a couple of hostages". This sense of accomplishment therefore lead to the obvious request for Smartie's, but his hopes were quickly dashed as Mrs. B pointed out that he hadn't follow proper Smartie procedure and "dropped the kids off at the pool", aka he didn't use the toilet.

Is it little wonder the kid is confused about whether he should use the toilet like a normal human or use the squat approach like the dog. Over the previous weekend, there were a number of times that the boy wanted a snack while we were riding in the car. This really isn't a problem, except for the fact that with the twins now taking up the entire middle seat, the boy has been relegated to sitting in the far back with the dog. When driving and trying to provide a snack to a screaming 2 year old, the only option is to just toss the treat at them and hope it lands close enough for them to grab it before the dog does. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised we are still having a little difficulty distinguishing from human and animal behavior at this point.

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