riding the potty train

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A little over a week ago, if you'll recall, I got sick of changing Garrett's diapers, put him in big boy underpants, and told him to keep them dry. It was not ideal timing to get back on the potty train since the end of the week was going to be wacky and far from our normal routine. So I told myself that Tuesday morning, in between my requests that Garrett go sit on the potty, that if he caught on, great, but if he didn't, he'd likely be back in a diaper the next day.

Well, I'm happy to report that he caught on. Not all at once, mind you, and sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back, but we have new victories every day. For example:

• On Day 2 he started telling me he needed to use the potty (instead of only me telling him to go).
• On Saturday he stayed dry from the time we left the house at 6:30 in the morning to head to New Jersey until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon.
• On Sunday night, several hours after we'd tucked him in with instructions to get of bed and come get us if he needed to use the potty, and shortly before we went to bed ourselves, he called out, half asleep, that he needed to go. And he wasn't kidding -- he did go, once we sat him on the potty.
• And Monday morning he woke up dry.
• Yesterday, with the incentive that I'd make him this if he'd stop pooping in his pants already, he announced in the middle of dinner that he needed to use the "poppy" and, lo and behold, actually pooped while he was sitting there. (And then, 10 minutes later, he finished pooping in his pants. But we're focusing on the positive here.)

He doesn't have this down to an art yet, and he's had his share of accidents (including one this morning that involved pee all over his special silky blue blanket; I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of making a special trip to the laundromat). He is still learning to recognize the feeling that he has to go, and consequently we have a lot of false alarms. "It's gone," he tells me when he sits down and can't pee.

Until he masters this big boy business a little better, he wears special "outside" and "bedtime" underwear (also known as "Pull-Ups"), but while he's in the house, he wears regular cloth training pants. Even though they are serving a beautiful purpose, I'm trying so hard to keep him from getting too hooked on the disposable underwear, so everyday we slowly take things up a notch. And, for the most part, he's been rising to the occasion right along with it. Because he knows he's riding the potty train, and he's accepted the fact that he's not getting off.