Learn to potty with mommy

Tonight we introduced Em to his new best friend, The Potty. Now, that being said, I understand he is only 18 months old. I have been down this road before, and I’m still shaking off the crazy from the first go around. It’s not that I’ve lost my senses, it just seems like he really needed a potty. If nothing else, it is now available for him to use in his constant game of “I am just as big as At-man”.

Em is already in Pull-Ups, simply because his chubby, dough-like thighs get all red when strapped into a conventional diaper. They are just too squishy to achieve the proper fit. Until he got into his Pull-Ups, I never noticed how much attention he must have been paying to the potty habits of those around him. You see, he is a bit of a toilet goblin. Some sort of radar goes off in his mind as soon as one of us accidentally leaves the bathroom door open. Hooray! It’s splash in the commode time! I have always heard about second children being easier to potty train simply because they see everyone else in the family using the potty; they have more desire to try it themselves. Em on the other hand, has been shut out completely so as to keep his hands out of the toilet. My worries have been calmed though. Ever since the Pull-Up introduction, whenever he actually does get near a potty he waddles up and tries to “whip it out” over the toilet seat. It was time for him to meet a potty of a more manageable size.

I know after round 1 that this may take 6 more months, or 2 years. I don’t care. Tonight I was just full of love seeing his dough-boy naked little body as he climbed in and out of the potty, a pile of discarded board books in his wake. He is so soft, when you look at his skin it’s all you can think about. Soft, baby shampoo scented love. I know people always tend to think that the second child gets the shaft, that the first had all the attention in the world, but there is something to be said for the second time around. When Em doesn’t talk much, I know he will. When I get frustrated one way or another with his potty training, I will know when he is ready it will all work out. With At-man it just seemed endless. I had visions of packing up case loads of Depends when we sent him off to college. He had to live through all the stress, paving the smooth road Em has today. I will keep you posted incase a miracle happens, but don’t hold your breath. I fear the next potty post will be far from now, unless you want to keep hearing about how he thinks his butt goes on the very back and his feet go in the pot (which At-man thinks is funnier than belching at the dinner table}.