Potty Training...

is gross.

And yet, successful! Stevie seems to have finally gotten the hang of it! The first day was extremely unpleasant, and he continually looked at me like I was out of my mind, but a few well-placed bribes later, he was consistently using the toilet! YAY! No more number 6 diapers! And he’s so self-sufficient! He’ll come up to me and announce, “Mommy, I gotta go pee,” and then march into the bathroom and start the whole process all by himself.

I have to admit that I’ve really been putting the whole potty-training circus on hold until we lived in a place with a washing machine on premises, and believe you me; I don’t know how people do it without one. On top of everything else, I can’t say that I was generally looking forward to the general nastiness of it all. But tackle it we must!

Now, I’m still putting him in the “Good Nites” at night time. But he’s even getting better at that! It was considerably less wet the past couple of mornings. And believe it or not, he actually woke me up this morning (at the crack of dawn, mind you) with “Mommy, I have to go pee.” Now, I’m absolutely positive that he will never get as enthusiastic a greeting using that phrase as he did this morning by me.

The bad news is that he hasn’t quite gotten a hold of the other. You know, the much nastier other. He just doesn’t seem to know when it’s happening, and always seems genuinely surprised when it shows up in his underwear. I just have to remember not to be negative about it. I don’t want him hiding it from me like I’ve heard other kids do. But it’s very hard to remain positive and encouraging when you’re cleaning up something like that! How can I make him more aware of it, without freaking him out, so that he can get to the toilet in time?

In the meantime, watching him delightedly check out his new Cars or Thomas the Train undies in the mirror is definitely a Kodak moment. Who’da thunk I’d ever be so excited about someone else’s bladder control? I’m ecstatic!