I didn’t think I’d someday be writing a blog post about somebody else’s poop, and I sure didn’t think I’d be writing a second post following up my first post about someone else’s poop…but here we are!
We are currently right in the middle of potty training. It’s been a long and strange trip to getting here. Our son has been peeing in the potty for quire some time, although not consistently, but pooping was a whole different matter. After a few incidents in a couple days we determined it was time. We’ve been hesitant to force the issue or push him too hard on this matter because using the potty can be difficult and scary, and we didn’t want him to have fear surrounding the use of the potty. Luckily, he embraced the idea and our thoughts about him being ready proved to be right as he is currently on day 7 of wearing diapers only overnight, and pooping and peeing in the potty every time, even in public!
After our own thinking along with advice from Mom-in-law, we/my wife (the more crafty one) made him a couple of charts and we decided to use stickers and a new lion toy as motivation. The lion would be a reward for going poop in the potty 7 times and the stickers would be for each time he went to have a fun way to help him see his journey. This would give him something tangible he could see he was working for and would ask him to do it over multiple days to form the habit and make sure it wasn’t just a fluke. At this point he still knows he’s working for the lion, but our encouraging and reinforcement has got him excited about the fact that he’s just using the big potty all the time and getting to wear underwear instead of diapers.
It’s been a long road to getting here, but once we started encouraging him to try in earnest, it’s been relatively painless and easy, and even a little bit fun. It’s really hard to know when a kid is ready to be potty trained…but I guess sometimes the child has to tell the adult when their body is ready.
This is fatherhood…(and it’s full of 
)
This Is Fatherhood 