Aiden has been such a stinker face lately. He is so ridiculously sweet with me. I mean, look at that smile.
But then as soon as Travis comes around he is a complete a-hole. He doesn't want to have anything to do with Travis. When he gets home from work, Aiden tells him to go back to work and refuses to give him a hug and kiss hello. He does the same thing for goodbye in the morning. Aiden gets an attitude with everything Travis says to him. Every once in a while they have a good night when Travis has time to play with him a lot. But it's not often enough. I just don't know what to do about it.
The other thing I don't know how to handle is potty training. Does any body have any recommendations? I've read a couple books about it, and some stuff online, but nothing is cut and dry. I know kids are not cut and dry, but I need more than I can find. Everything recommends letting him sit on the potty frequently, especially during times when he usually pees or poops. I don't know when he pees?! How do you figure that out?? How often should I let him sit on the potty? For how long? I tried letting him go without a diaper for a night and he freaked out every time he peed on the ground. I would rush him to the toilet, but that just freaked him out even more.
He also doesn't poop on a set schedule. Apparently, most kids have a set time they poop. Like Travis. He goes once in the morning and once in the evening. I guess Aiden is like me. You never know when the time will come. Not to mention Aiden's bowels are all sorts of messed up. He had horrible constipation for a year that made him bleed and cry, EVERY TIME. These days he has diarrhea more often than not. So now instead of bleeding, he's got diaper rash. At least I can medicate the rash.
I don't know when to put Aiden on the potty. He will only sit on the potty if I bribe him. So I started letting him put a sticker on his potty chart every time he sat on the toilet. I try to do it every night before bed, but he's never peed during that time (I read a book or two to distract him from getting off). I don't really have time to do the potty in the morning or when we get home from work/daycare. I guess I need to find the time. It's just that it's such a fight getting him on that toilet. If he needs to sit on it for 10 minutes at a time, that is about 20 minutes of our time. The other ten minutes is spent begging him to sit on the damn potty.
I even tried buying Pull-ups with Buzz Lightyear on them. We told him he can wear the big boy pants when he goes pee pee on the potty. He was excited about the Toy Story pants, but apparently not excited enough.
To get him even remotely excited about the potty, we let him decorate it with stickers of Spiderman and Elmo. We spent a week or two just looking at the stickers on his really awesome potty before he would actually sit on it.
I've come up with a new method of bribery: He gets to watch TV if he sits on the potty. We rarely let him watch TV during the week, so that's a HUGE deal. It worked for 30 minutes last night!
Except now I'm worried he's going to get a hemorrhoid.
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3 comments:
Potty training is rough, and it takes an insurmountable amount of patience. I read several books as well when I was trying to potty train Logan, and your right...there is no cut and dry, and there are so many different methods that it becomes too overwhelming. Like you, I couldn't tell you when my kid is going to pee or poop. That is just strange! First, let me just say that Logan freaked out too when he would pee on the floor. It took a while, but eventually he just started walking in to the bathroom and telling me he needed to pee. Thats not to say that Aiden will too...he may need a different method, but I would say give each method you try at least three weeks before trying a new one.
Do they work on potty training him at daycare? If so, you should ask what they do, that way you stay consistant with their method. If not, you might be able to tell them you are working on it at home and ask for some help. With Logan I literally asked him every 5 minutes if he needed to potty, and he sat on the potty every 10 minutes. By the time JR got home, I would put him on duty for at least an hour because if I had to say the word potty one more time I would have thrown the potty against a wall!!!LOL
With Landry, I have started and stopped the process several times. I wont lie...the reason is because I am lazy, and I dont have the patience. I do well for about a day, and then I find that I just dont have the will power to stay with it. It has to be something you are commited to full heartedly. I am coming around to the idea of it more and more. I am so ready to stop buying diapers but part of me thinks that as long as she's in diapers, she's still my little baby. Once she's out of diapers, it all over and before I know it she will be in pre-k and telling me she doesn't like me - just like her brother! I am not emotionally ready for that! LOL BUT, I know I need to do it.
Just hang in there, pull out all the patience you can possibly muster, and be as consistant as possible. My aunts never potty trained either of their girls...their philosophy was that EVERYONE learns to pee in the potty at some point...they were both 5 when they stopped wearing diapers...something about them learning by example once they were in kindergarten....now this is not my recommendation - but everyone does learn to pee in the potty at some point! LOL
As far as Aiden wanting nothing to do with Travis... relish it - by next month he will be up Travis' butt and want nothing to do with you! They kind of go back and forth...just be careful - I have seen many parents fall for the trap of buying things for the child, and it basically teaches them how to manipulate the parents! LOL
I'm definitely not going to wait and let him potty train himself. That sounds like a bad idea to me. Haha! I worry about putting him in the bathroom so often that he gets turned off to the whole thing. I need to find a happy medium!
His daycare won't start potty training him "until he's ready". I'm not exactly sure how they determine that, but they don't think Aiden's there yet.
Ugh, so much to think about!
Yeah, if the idea of sitting on the potty already causes an issue...then your doing great. Just have him do it once a day for a good period of time, then move it up to twice a day and so on...on the weekends try doing it once every couple of hours, until he's comfortable. He'll catch on, and one day you will look back on this and barely even remember the struggles!
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