God is faithful even in Potty Training!

Potty training was the current thing on my list of hurdles to cross in raising children of which I was very fearful. God had blessed me again (thus far at least) and miraculously I began potty training Philip today out of his own desire! My goal was to "train him in a day" this coming Saturday. That was putting enough pressure on me to see if that method really worked. I didn't see the harm in it because if we didn't get it perfected that day, we would just continue working with Philip over the next several days like all other parents do. It was just the fact of actually jumping in with two feet which made me scared. I have a character flaw of thinking if I can't get something just right, I may as well quit. This is only the latest of many obstacles where I've been reminded that parenting doesn't play that way. No quitting once that sweet baby enters the family.


Anyway, here's how today played out and how God took the pressure off me. All week, I've been telling Philip how great it would be to wear underwear instead of diapers. He even tried on a pair last week just so I could see if he could pull them up and down. Well, before his nap we usually read a book. I thought we'd go ahead and pull out "The Toddler's Potty Book" which he had received in his monthly, free book club. It was all about the little boy being a "big boy" and how easy it was to use the potty. I finished the book by saying, "Philip, this Saturday we can start using the big potty. Won't that be fun?" Here's where God intervened! Philip immediately said, "I want to use the potty NOW." When your child wants to potty, you go! Praise the Lord if the child didn't go poop! And to make it even better, he went right into our toilet and not the little potty. I say this because we had been sporadically letting him go on his little Pooh Bear potty several months ago. This however involved dumping the pot into our toilet and washing the pot. Well, the potty book we read showed the boy sitting on the normal toilet with a stool beside it. That's how Philip wanted it and I was excited to discover that our Pooh Bear potty could snap apart and the green seat snaps onto the full-size toilet seat while the yellow chair folds together to form a step-stool. Up onto it Philip climbed and did his business.

Well, a diaper went back on before his nap and it was wet when he awoke. No pressure. I took it off and asked him about wearing underwear. He said he wanted to and I reminded him to stay dry (we did try to pee but he must have just gone in the diaper so nothing happened). However as the afternoon turned into evening he did go pee three more times on the potty. He did have one accident before dinner but thank the Lord again because he happened to be on the back porch watching Matthew cut grass. After dinner, we tried again but he didn't have to go (he did go just before dinner). I was a little nervous as we headed out to take a walk. Philip did great! He rode in the double stroller two-thirds of the way sitting on a towel and then wanted to walk the rest of the way home. No accidents!

My growing-up-too-fast boy is now fast asleep in bed (with a diaper on obviously). We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'll let you know.