Because everything is seriously more fun if it is doubled right? Or that’s at least what I keep telling myself.
This wasn’t the first time that I’ve attempted to potty train the two littles. I tried in the summer and neither were anywhere close to being ready. I tried in the fall and Coppélia was kind of ready and did ok for awhile, but then got a cold and everything went out the window and she was having more accidents then successes and it just wasn’t working. And Paxton while a few weeks older is just a little nugget of a guy and muscle control just hasn’t been there for him.
And so last week once everyone was finally healthy again from the nasty cold that took us all out over Christmas, and armed with chocolate chips I started again. I made some fresh juice to maximize the opportunities for success and went for it. Coppélia seemed to remember how things worked and was earning chocolate chips pretty regularly throughout the morning. Paxton on the other hand was not making much progress. I was about ready to say that it wouldn’t happen for him again by mid day (after cleaning up I don’t know how many piddle accidents and throwing a number of pants in the wash) but then suddenly things clicked and he started to make the connection. By the end of the day he had had a number of successes in the potty which gave me some hope again.
From there they both kind of took off. I think it has almost become a contest between the two of them, if one goes and earns a chocolate chip or marshmallow the other immediately runs over to their mini potty and attempts to go. They clap for each other and Coppélia in her not so quiet ways quickly lets us know of any successes. Poop has been a little more of a struggle for both of them, but learning that they earn two chocolate chips seems to be motivation enough most of the time.
The two of them were helping me cook some muffins the other morning and it was literally like a circus show. It should have taken me about 15 minutes to put the ingredients together in the mixing bowl and instead it was easily over an hour. The morning went something like this:
Get out mixing bowl
Get out mixer
Help Coppélia pull down pants
Find measuring cups
Celebrate Coppélia’s success
Dump potty and wash it out and wash hands
Give Coppélia chocolate chip
Find first ingredient
Help Paxton with his pants
Measure first ingredient
Celebrate with Paxton
Dump potty and wash it out and wash hands
Give Paxton chocolate chip
Put first ingredient in the bowl
Help Coppélia with pants
Find second ingredient
Celebrate with Coppélia
Dump potty and wash it out and wash hands
Give Coppélia chocolate chip
Measure second ingredient
Help Paxton with his pants
And on and on and on and on
I think they figured the more often they go the more often they get chocolate chips and so now they have to go every 5 minutes. I know they can hold it way longer, as both came home completely dry from church on Sunday which means they went at least 2 1/2 hours….
It is crazy but fun too, and way exciting that it seems to be working this go around. I’m hoping by the time they go to college I will not still have to be handing out chocolate chips for their successes….but we’ll see.
Hiking Mommy 