How To Drive Yourself Crazy: Day 1

Today was the kick-off for a very important lesson in Austin's life. Potty Training. :) I've been thinking about it for a few months now. Austin's been showing interest in the potty ever since he was about 20 months old. As for the readiness checklist? Yep, he's totally there. Which is quite a relief for me because he's already in the largest size diaper they make!

Back about June, I called a lady here in Mountain Home who has 9 children with whom she's used one certain approach to potty training and its worked for all 9 of them. SURELY it could work for Austin.

The Plan:
A 3-day Potty Training Intensive, to sum it up. Go cold turkey on the diapers. All underwear, all the time...no training pants. Give the child as much juice/water/milk as they want all day long for 3 days straight, but cut them off an hour before bedtime. Take the child to the potty every 10 minutes. Have them sit on the potty for 2-5 minutes. If they go #1 they get 1 small piece of candy. If they go #2 they get 2 small pieces of candy. If they go #0 they get none. Sure, its bribery, but by the 3rd day they begin to realize the ultimate goal.
This woman always starts her children at about 22 months. I figure its not too early to at least try since Austin is now one month past two years.

My Plan:
A slight variation. No training pants, BUT diapers at night...because I am NOT expecting a 2-year old to make it through the night the first few days of potty training. One thing at a time for us. We'll tackle nights at a later date...like 6 months down the road, later. ;)

Day 1:
Oh, Dear. How do I sum up Day 1? Ok, lets do stats...
Attempts on the Potty: 31
Accidents in the Undies: 12 (UUUUGH!)
Successes on the Potty: 1 (Yep that's right, ONE!)
This morning started out pretty tough. Austin did not fully understand what was expected of him. Which, I totally get that. Picture yourself in diapers all your life where you get to let loose anywhere, anytime. How awesome is that!?! But then one day, Mommy tells you "no more diapers!" WHAT?!? What are you doing to me, Woman!...you might think. ;) Then on go these strange, light-weight, action-figure covered, diaper-looking doodads and you all of the sudden get told "No, we don't do that anymore" when you've gone whoopty in your new tighty whities!
So, needless to say, I'm not surprised we had TWELVE accidents and only ONE success today. In fact, I'm THRILLED we had A SUCCESS today!
(Side note: I did actually explain my expectations and what we were doing to Austin long before we threw him into his new super-hero undies. He acted pretty excited to be able to wear them, too.)

Yes, today was hard. It was hard trying to get him to go to the potty every ten minutes. It was hard to try to get him to potty IN the potty chair. It was hard having to clean up twelve messes on the floor/rug. And it was hard trying to get Austin to understand why we were doing things differently today. But I know he'll come around.
Austin is a super smart kid. He's always been ahead of the game. He smiled early. He laughed early. He talked early. He walked early. I don't push him. I gently encourage him. And if he wants do things that 3-year old children are doing, by golly, I'm going to let him try. If he doesn't catch on in a week. I'm more than happy to let him stay in diapers a little while longer. But I'm not going to hold him back because someone else says he's not ready or not old enough.

So, I'll keep encouraging him. :)

PS. Tomorrow's goal: 2 Successes on the Potty! ;)