Pee like a man!

A lot of my friends advised that having a baby would mean that, even if I did succeed in potty-training Calvin, he might revert back into his old ways when the baby came. Luckily, he isn't potty trained completely, but now that the baby is born, we're back to fighting the potty training battle.

Quinn has come up with some fun potty chants. So, especially around bedtime, you might find the entire Marksteiner family parading around upstairs (Calvin usually does his parading in the nude) singing "Pee in the Potty, Pee in the Potty, Pee in the Potty bump bump bump!" at the top of our lungs.

This has gotten Calvin pretty pumped about using the potty.  We occasionally beat on drums while doing this, and when he finally goes to the potty and pees we cheer for him.

Another chant (that Quinn made up) is good for encouraging young men to pee standing up. It goes (and you have to sing it like you're some kind of pro-wrestler taunting the competition): Pee like a man like a man like a man, Pee like a man like a manly man man!"

When we sing this Calvin gets the stool out and either pees in the toilet or does a high shot into the toilet.

For Christmas he got a pack of superhero underpants and I tried to get him excited about them by waving them around and saying he can try wearing underpants in the morning.... but that didn't go over too well. He cried and screamed.

Oh well.  Some changes take a little getting used to. I can't expect to start flinging underwear around and expect him to be automatically enthusiastic. Luckily he got a neat book for Christmas that makes underpants seem cool: Aliens Love Underpants, By Claire Freedman. In it the aliens come down to earth to play with underpants.

But the thing that got Calvin to appreciate underwear wearing is flattery (hey-it works every time with me!) I put on a pair of underwear on him when he was distracted (he was looking at a Wiggles book when I was changing his diaper).  Then, to be honest, I forgot that he was wearing it, so a couple of hours later his sweatpants were wet, and I took him upstairs for a bath. When he pulled down his sweatpants I said, "Wow! You've got underpants on! Cool!"

He looked down to see his awesome new underpants and I could tell he felt like a real big shot. He was talking about them all night as I got him ready for bed. Then I put another pair on over his diaper when he slept. (I don't have a rubber sheet yet... so I'm not ready to let him sleep without a diaper). When Quinn came home from his jazz band rehearsal, I told him to go upstairs and compliment Calvin on his underwear. It worked. Calvin knows it's cool to wear underwear.

We still have a few struggles. He still is rebellious and doesn't want to go to the potty when we ask him, and sometimes he only wants to wear the orange underpants and if the orange underpants are dirty we'll have to suffer through an afternoon-long temper tantrum.  Why do kids have to be potty trained while they're so emotionally volatile and unreasonable? Sounds like the topic for another blog post.