I know I have been talking soooo much about my eldest son, the amazing three year old that has accomplished sooo much in the potty training arena. I have to say a few things about my baby boy.

I am in awe over this child and know that I will be trying to keep up with him for the rest of my life. He is a climber. Like, the kid doesn’t walk yet (buries head in sand over the steps he ran and walked randomly) and yet he climbs everything he can get his hands on. We like to go to a park that has the little play ground and the big play ground. My baby boy has shown his climbing prowess by climbing the big play ground trying to keep up with his brother that is nearly 2.5 years older than him.

He is amazing. Oh and he talks. I am not the delusional parent convinced he speaks well, he is learning and is a great mimic. He loves to try to enunciate nearly every word that he hears. *makes note to clean up the music listened to around him* He is amazing. Oh and he is an eater. My first son was only interested in nursing for the first full year of his life. My second? He loves to chill at the BF cafe when he can but he also wants a bite of that burger his mom is eating while nursing him. Epic.

So he is ‘nearly’ walking (I’m still not willing to say otherwise), he crawls ridiculously fast, he climbs everything he can and I’m hoping he loves a diversity of good food, so far so good.

I just adore my boys, adore.

He’s being all awesome and doing all he can on his own. I had no idea he would do so well.

I mean I knew he could do it but I had no idea he would just embrace the process so willingly and be so self sufficient.

He is awesome.

I am proud.

I officially have a giant grin on my face so big that even my baby is grinning since that is what you are supposed to do when someone uses the potty correctly. Yay!

We did the scariest thing ever! We took both boys grocery shopping while one was diaperless! Scary stuff, huh? We went grocery shopping without both boys last week, yes we were big chickens, so what!

My big boy was doing well all day with the potty training, you know acting like he’s been doing this for years. He even had attitude with me when I asked if he needed to use the potty, he rolled his eyes and told me I was silly since he had just peed a few minutes ago. Epic.

Back to grocery shopping. We weren’t used to this process and both my husband and I spaced on offering a potty break at the first store. We went to the second store with our eldest son recovering from grocery cart regret, he didn’t use the cart with the plastic car on the front per his request to “Be like Mommy and Daddy”, then lost his mind when he saw another kid riding in it.

So our first trip to a commercial toilet, I was nervous and my son was excited. We ran to the bathroom since my son announced he had to pee NOW. I saw the womens bathroom was occupied so I figured having my son with me authorized us to use the mens bathroom. It worked out nicely and so far my son isn’t petrified of those evil automatic flushing toilets. We did in fact high five after washing our hands and grocery shopping was narrated by my son.

He is just so happy with himself but has this air to him that just says, ‘Yeah, I’m just that awesome.’

Yeah, my son was a rock start today.

He proudly would announce that he used the potty all by himself, with a dance. Yes, I had to escort him back to the bathroom to wash his hands and wash my own hands since I high fived him with glee before remembering that he can’t turn the faucet on by himself.

Yes my son was a potty trained big boy and for the umpteenth time I have realized that my children are growing before my very eyes and it is happening way too fast but this is the wild ride I volunteered for.

For now I’m just going to enjoy a song and dance with my son potty training skillZ, yeah with a capital Z.

Yesterday was horrid, just horrid as everyone was struggling with the emotional turmoil of the accidents. Yes, even the baby realized that everyone was having a hard time. It’s amazing how your child has an accident and you try to focus all your energy on making it right and yet you, as a mother, find the time to beat yourself up for dropping the ball and possibly not give your kid enough time and attention.

Today, we are getting better, much better. My son started the day with an accident and a shower and I had a load of laundry to do before doing anything. We followed it up with being my son then being way too confident with his bladder control and having a moment where he forgot to take his pants off while peeing. From that point on he was showing his prowess, kicking butt and taking names and kept things dry everywhere but in the potty.

You are so happy you stumbled over this blog right now. I mean, I can just see the techie followers of my husband wondering what in the hell they came across. You can thank my ever so wonderful husband for sharing this space with his stay at home mom wife to share the joys of pees and poops and lactating boobies and other fantastical bodily functions. Go ahead, take a minute to thank him.

My potty training star and his little brother were in rare form and all they want is to cling to me and make demands. I think I was just worn out and the boys just like to go full throttle, meaning I was a big baby on this day. My toddler was in a mouthy mood and my baby was dealing with the teething woes along with me being tired and in some kind of allergy stupor, it was a bad combination.

The potty training was great until we had words when he just wasn’t willing to sit on the potty for a minute to be sure he was ok. It went down hill fast after that point. He had an accident, he was upset with himself. I cleaned him up in a hurry, not a big deal, well I didn’t think so until I took his favorite pajamas and he cried. I hurried and got him in another favorite outfit and he was still in tears. The baby was screaming his head off as I put him in the pack n play to keep him out of the mess I was cleaning. My baby doesn’t understand why I wouldn’t want him clinging to my side, ready to bolt to get into some kind of mess.

The stress of this event along with me not getting my much needed 5-10 minutes of quiet on my own and me not feeling spectacular was building up. My solution? Take the boys on a walk, of course! I needed to get some endorphins going and my toddler needed another outing sans diaper and my baby needed some sunshine. We went on said walk and came back to the house in a better mood, or so I thought. I asked my toddler to sit on the potty a couple times. Sadly he refused and announced he could do it by himself. Cue accident number two while he made it to the potty he forgot getting his pants off first.

There were tears and panic from both my husband and toddler at this point. I had to stop a nursing session with my baby and take over just so things would calm down. When everyone was cleaned up and calmed down I sat and cried. This is the easy stuff guys, and as they get older it is only going to get harder. I want to be an awesome mom and today I didn’t feel like an awesome mom. I know there are going to be hard days but when you are in the thick of it, holy crap this job is so hard.

The day ended on a good note and I needed that. I’ll try to be an awesome mom again tomorrow.

We had a great day and when it came to today’s outing, we stretched it out over two hours and the first thing our potty training star did was map out the potty available and tried it out.

Yeah, he is awesome.

He didn’t have a single accident and was even applauding himself by the time we got home. He is a bit of show off. I’m so proud of my big boy.

We have survived so far. Heck, it has been smooth sailing considering how hard and rough this journey could be. I love to stay home and frankly my toddler prefers to stay home unless we are going to visit his Nana or go to a park but we need to try going out. We needed a kiddie pool to survive the heat wave we were dealing with (and by we, I mean me). So I asked my mom to come with us, as I was too big of a baby to even consider going on this trip with my boys on my own.

We went to the store and though the toys were a distraction we some how made it out with my toddler dry and with only a few tears and a kiddie pool. We forced the pool in my van with the help of a kind gentleman that saw us struggling to put it in the vehicle. We got home and got the boys out of the car and then celebrated on our ‘dry run’ with our own little pool party.

I think we are doing well (and by we, I mean my toddler) is doing an awesome job. We got out of the house! :throws confetti:

I had been letting my toddler run around in underwear as clothes seemed to be such an huge challenge. I had so many things going for us so we tried clothes again. My toddler did fantastic.

We spent more time outside which meant that he had to trek into the house to use the potty. We were putting stickers on the chart, eating our candy treats, high fiving, doing dances. Life is good.

I’m now realizing that one day we will have to go out as a family, with my little boy in underwear. It has to happen. It will happen. I am afraid. This process has gotten smoother but we are about to add a new challenge.

I thought I had this process under control, well as under control as you can get. My toddler boy rarely had any accidents. He did a dance, we high fived with each success. I felt good until I started getting more and more attitude from my toddler.

Then I turned to the interwebs for advice. I went to a couple baby boards that I have been a part of for a while and discovered that I was doing almost everything right. Yay, I think. Then one of incredible ladies on one of the baby boards I frequented asked if I used a timer to alert my toddler it was time to check if he had to use the potty. Oh my goodness! Using this technique meant less attitude from my toddler as he felt more in control. It meant less time outs for my toddler as his hissy fits were massive and were terrible displays of disrespect for me. It meant we were back on the same page.

Thank goodness when I needed help I was not only given the key tip to make life better for all of us but I also was reassured that I was using the techniques needed. This meant that my mobile baby was also given more attention and we could focus more on learning and playing.

Yay for help.