Tonight Joshua peed in the potty seat we bought him. Did you read that people?
JOSHUA WENT PEE-PEE POTTY.
I have absolutely zero delusions that this will happen again anytime soon. None. At all.
But tonight? It happened. And it only cost me one blue m&m so far.
We bought a potty seat on a whim about two months ago and realized as soon as we got it out of the box that we’d bought the worst potty seat for little boys ever made. There was no splash guard on this potty seat, you see, so he sat down on it and…well…I’m infinitely glad he didn’t pee on the potty the very first time we put him on one.
That potty seat is now a tooth-brushing stool in front of the sink. And if you say “jump on the stool” he will try to jump. Onto the stool. And not pretty things like him nearly smacking his teeth out on the vanity will ensue.
So we bought another potty seat after Dan did some research. The Bjorn seat. Because SPLASH GUARD, y’all!
(And no, that’s not an Amazon affiliate link, so I’ll get nothing if you go ahead and purchase one for your boy, too. We got the yellow one because it’s bright and cheery! And the color of pee!)
My college psych professor used his daughters as examples of Classical conditioning by describing his process of potty training them with m&ms. And that guy was weird. And smart. Like Ben Stein. And the Pavlov dogs figured it out and my kid is WAY smarter than my dog, so m&ms sounded like a fantastic idea.
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We’ve been asking him if he wants to sit on the potty seat when we get him naked for bath time each night. Sometimes he happily plops his skinny little butt down on the seat and sits there on his throne and plays trains and eats an m&m.
Lately, he gets all histrionic and says “NO! NO SIT PODDY SEEEE!!!” And we’re all “Hoookay, kid! Simmer!” Because I will do nearly anything to stop that rapidly accelerating meltdown.
But then I had a moment of “I dunno…maybe we shouldn’t make him think he can get a candy every time he sits on the potty because he’ll only pee when he wants candy and not because he has to pee.” So we were completely rethinking this strategy of bribing for pee.
But tonight he asked to sit on the potty. HE ASKED TO SIT ON THE POTTY. So I stripped his clothes off and down he sat. Then he said “Caaa-eee??” So while Dan ran his bath water, I went to the kitchen to get the m&m. And on my walk there, I hear Dan start saying “YAY JOSHIE! JOSHIE PEE PEE POTTY! YAY!”
And Joshua’s all “Dude. Where’s my candy?”
He had completely zero idea that the pee earned him the candy and totally thought the sitting was key. So half-winning?
When we trained the dog, we gave her the treat WHILE she was doing her business, so I think I’m going to have to start going to the bathroom prepared with treats in my pocket.
Because I draw the line at storing the m&ms IN the bathroom. I mean, poop particles say it all, right?
i love it! only when you are a mum can you understand the squeal inducing excitement of somebody elses toilet habits! xxx
EXACTLY.
LOL! I’ve heard from my coworkers that pennies work well for this too. Good luck!
Hmm. Not quite sure I want to start breaking the bank to go pee. I’ll save the big guns for #2!!
::snort:: I love this. I also love that you are insightful enough to wonder if he’ll just pee for candy. I would have never thought of that.
I’m debating getting my cats to go in the potty. Seriously. What a sight that would be.
I think maybe I read it on some judge-y parenting blog somewhere. You know one of those “This is the ONLY WAY EVER to potty train your child and if you don’t DO IT EXACTLY LIKE THIS you will grow a sociopath!”
But I like candy.
Also? If I could’ve gotten the cat to use the toilet, I might’ve…well, I still would’ve rehomed him, but maybe he would’ve lasted a little longer.
YAY!!! That’s so great!! And he’s totally smarter than Pavlov’s dogs.
And FYI? Mythbusters did a thing on the poop particles once. The toothbrush stored in the bathroom did have poop on it. But so did the one not in the bathroom. Because, really? The whole world is covered in poop.
Errr, and your link is to the mythbusters video. So I feel silly. Sorry.
I must remember when we get to that age/time to get a splash guard. As a girl, I never thought about that piece of it. Thanks for the disaster warning! Yay for Joshua! Good start to summer no?
Had we not had two nephews, we probably would’ve missed that important piece of information, too.
And yes, good start to the summer.
So awesome.
::totally writing this down for future reference: splashguard::
Yes. The Splashguard is a must. And the Bjorn seat I linked gets the highest ratings for being boy-friendly.
We totally use M&Ms for potty training too. And I definitely compare raising kids to training my dogs alllll the time. People think I’m horrible when I do that hahahah.
I wrote an entire post about it. Dogs and babies? Not so different on most things.
I’ll go look for the post and check it out! =)
awesome! Don’t underestimate him… Solo was 100% potty trained before his 2nd birthday. Those boys are smarter than we think! Go J, GOOO!
That’s awesome, Grace! Really. Joshua? He’s just in it for the candy. :/
Be patient. At least he is sitting on the seat. It took is a good month to get chunky on the seat!
We’re being patient! I’m in no rush!
I ALMOST bought the Bjorn today, but I bought a frog that is EXACTLY like the bjorn, but…well…a frog.
So far? Ed thinks it’s a toy.
not really a win.