"Extision!" That's Avery's way of says "ignition." And for me its not like, "we have lift off," its more like "we have potty training!" We have successfully completed a week in big boy pants and 4 consecutive poops on the potty. Seriously, this is so huge for us. I know my mom will kill me for writing about this ("Your Nana is turning over in her grave," she'll say), but I have to write about it, just for myself so in two years when I'm trying to get Jake to do this I can check myself and also for anyone else, any other type A personality, that is trying to potty train their kid. This is important.
Before I even start I want to note that I checked out EVERY book on potty training from Hennepin County library and tried EVERYTHING in these books. We literally have been trying for a year to potty train Avery. It's been more of a power struggle than anything else and caused nothing but frustration and angst between the three of us. All of the time I tried to tell myself that he would eventually get it, just like everything else with him. We just stress and stress and stress over when he is going to do things. When would he roll over? When would he start eating solids? When would he gain weight? When would he get a tooth? We waited for a whole year for him to get his first tooth and I remember Kevin saying to me, "Don't worry, did you ever know a kid who didn't get their teeth?"
Honestly, what did it for us is my stupid broken arm. After my bike accident I had so much trouble taking the boys out I resigned myself to staying home with them and just being with them. And all of this time, over the past month or so I just let Avery run around naked or with just his underpants on. One day we were making cookies and he was totally butt naked and I remember thinking, is this okay/sanitary/normal (or none of the above)? As it turns out, half the time he doesn't care about any of the stupid stuff that I make him go and do with me on my days off. I think he just likes being, being at home, being with me or with his dad or his little brother. I think he just needed to be, for a few days to figure it all out. I knew he could do it, he just needed the chance to work it out, on his own time and his own terms.
I've been watching Avery for the past few days, so proud, putting his poopies in the potty and then naming each one before flushing them down the toliet (Big Daddy poopy, Avery poopy, little baby Jake poopy), and I think, he is still just a little guy. This is a big deal for such a little guy. I think about him trying to stand at a potty in a public restroom, barely tall enough to reach his penis over the edge of the potty, all the while I am yelling at him to not touch the potty because its yucky and then potty starts flushing on its own, water spraying everywhere. It's scary for a little guy. I wouldn't want to do it either if I were a little guy like him. And then we would to get mad and frustrated with him when he would have an accident because he was too scared to pee in a public restroom. It's just so crazy!
We have been expecting so much of him. And I feel badly that we put so much pressure on him, on ourselves to make it happen. I'm so happy I don't have to buy diapers for him anymore and I'm so happy I don't have to pollute our land fills anymore. What I am most happy about is that Avery is so very proud of himself. I just hope that Kevin and I can learn and remember from this experience that we need to let our kids do things on their own time and their own terms. And that we should not feel pressured by what every stupid book or person or anything or anyone else that tells us what our kids should be doing and exactly when they should be doing it.
After all, did you ever know a kid that didn't get his teeth?
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