Potty Training Ups and Downs

My mind has been on a couple of things lately. Potty training and Adoption and usually some sort of sewing, but that's on the other blog.

After this last post, we went on vacation. Potty training slowed down naturally, because we all know it is harder to potty train on the go.

Then, we barely had enough time to get into a home routine again, before Easter hit and once again, potty training slowed down.

Then, we have been SO.VERY.BUSY.

I was getting frustrated. Mostly, it was due to Cai now exerting his own independence over the potty. He didn't want to stop what he is doing (very natural for boys) to go potty, so he was perfectly fine going in his pants. I would put underwear on him, and it didn't even matter. He treated it like a diaper instead of underwear.

He would get mad when I would say it was potty time and arch his back and not want to sit. He used to go pretty much every time I sat him on the potty, even if just a little. Now, he would sit for several minutes and not even void. I would put a diaper on him, and he would go in his diaper pretty much right after being on the potty.

Just last night, I was talking to a sweet mom friend, who said when her son started doing similar behavior, she backed down, but that was how she felt in the situation was best for both of them.

I still hadn't decided what I was going to do, but I definitely didn't want to push the potty anymore, because it wasn't worth a fight over something so silly.

Then, this morning, I took Cai's diaper off for a few minutes and got distracted doing some other household chore. I walked out to the porch and Cai was looking as if he needed to go.

I just kindly pointed out that if he needed to go to the bathroom that his potty was right over there and he could use it if he wanted. But, I honestly gave him the power to decide his course of action.

To my surprise, he went over and happily sat on the potty himself and peed in it. He wanted some of his cars and so I gave him some cars to play with and then brought his lego table over so he could play while sitting on his potty. He was so happy on his potty he didn't even want to get off!

So weird for him.

I was shocked. He's 19 months. For many moms, they start potty training around now. Others, it still isn't even on the radar and there is no right way to do it.

I have no idea if tomorrow it is going to be a struggle and if he will not want to use his potty, but at the same time, it was like God just gave me encouragement in this area exactly when I needed it. I was ready to just stop and once again felt like a crazy woman to start this process so early, when God just showed me that he is going to potty train, in his time, and as usual, I just needed to be extra-patient.

The little booger!