Toilet Missed

A few weeks ago, I proclaimed that Darren was officially toilet trained.
Well he kinda was, and I already stopped putting his diapers on during the day for nearly two months now.
But please know that he does miss once in a while.

I don’t want to intimidate any other mommies out there by unfairly telling only the “ups” and not the “downs”. So, here’s one of the “downs”.

Darren peed in his pants last week.
He did said “PEE”, but it was only about three seconds before his “water broke”, when I was frantically trying to haul him to the toilet.
Where did this happen? No, unfortunately, not at home. In Sunday School! Ouch!
Although it was a little bit embarassing, considering how much I had bragged about him being off diapers, I managed to hold on to the primary rule of toilet training: NEVER discourage him by stressing on his errors or showing him too much, if any, disappointment. (I made that rule.)

So, I looked at him and smiled, saying that it was OK and that he should tell me BEFORE his next urge to pee. The fact that he took the whole thing easily and was already off to play within a few seconds was as a good sign of his mental state regarding his toilet training.

Among his other excellence, to tell you the truth, being toilet trained so early is one of Darren’s most surprising and fulfilling development.
To mommies out there who might be curious, here’s some toilet training tips (I’m also writing this to keep a note for myself, in case I’m having more kids –nope, SO not in the near future-) :

1. Keep in mind that you’re not TRAINING him, you’re SHOWING him the right place to pee/poop.

2. During the day, since early on, let him pee in his pants so he learns to feel the sensation of peeing and being wet (in Indonesia, mommies generally don’t use disposable diapers as much as mommies in the West. Personally, I think this helps. Although I must remind you, it’s oh SO MESSY!!)

3. At some 5 or 6 months, bring him to pee in the bathroom (I held Darren in my arms and “aimed” his pee into the toilet bowl), regardless he pees or not. Make it regular (some once or twice a day and gradually more frequent as he grows older), but keep in mind, DON’T EVER BE PUSHY (don’t expect him to pee every time you try, and don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t).

4. Make the point number 3 as fun as you can.

5. If he does pee into the toilet, PRAISE him with all your might. Make him understand (gradually, as he grows older) exactly why you praise him.

6. Once he’s able to sit up, sit him on a potty on the toilet bowl to pee or poop (remember, NEVER LEAVE HIM ALONE in the bathroom!).

7. Don’t compare him to other kids or set targets. Kids are different. Accept and love your kid as he is, that’s the best encouragement.

8. And, as I said before, NEVER discourage him by stressing on his errors or showing him too much, if any, disappointment. Together, celebrate his success, and underrate his un-success (make sure you encourage him if ever you feel a pinch of disappointment on his side). He’ll eventually think of peeing or pooping into the toilet as his personal achievement.

That’s all, I guess. By the time Darren learned to speak, he immediately told us when he needed to go. If I remembered correctly, it was when he reached 13 months of age.
At that time, he didn’t always mean it when he said “PEE” or “POOP”. Sometimes he just made fun of it, sometimes he just wanted to watch our urgency.

I guess one of the key to success was not expecting too much and just let things flow. When he’s ready, he’s ready.

Good luck, mommies ^______^

Toilet Training Tricks

Our beloved Darren is now officially “GRADUATED” from our Toilet Training Course ^___^

Although he’s been able to say “pee... pee...” when he needs to pee since as early as 13 months, he only learned to say “poo...poo...” and truly meant so since around 15 months of age.
Now at 16 months, our triumphs have been consistent enough to be called official.
Darren no longer needs diapers except for nighttime sleeps; and that’s just because Mommy doesn’t want messy wet sheets.

Darren still pees in his sleeps sometimes, but this will take some 4-5 years to conquer, so let’s give him all the time he needs for this one, shall we?
For the time being, he’s been doing a wonderful job as a young toddler, and we’re so proud of him.

But he did learn another thing from toilet training: a chance to “escape” from our bedroom when it’s already high time for him to sleep.
Whenever he has difficulty sleeping -which happens almost everyday-, he would toss around the bed, and then says “pee... pee...”
At first, I would hurrily bring him to the bathroom to pee, then he would pee just a few tiny drops. The second time around, he would just call and point at his favorite things in the bathroom and did not pee at all!
Since then on, I never take him back to the bathroom when we’re in bed and ready to sleep, so long as I made sure he did have a good pee beforehand.

Too bad for mischievous little Darren, Mommy’s also a fast learner ^___^

Toilet Training Triumph

In a supermarket in town, they have a special discount for groceries on certain days. Last Thursday was one of those days. Because of that, I took Darren along with me to that supermarket, to buy some groceries.
Oh, and by the way, Darren turned 16 months on that day.

Even though Darren’s been doing GREAT in his toilet training, whenever we go out, I usually put his diapers on, just in case.
A friend of mine brings plastic bags everywhere, so that her young son can pee into it whenever he needs to. We all know that sometimes public toilets aren’t always available and sometimes little kids just can’t hold long enough.
Or, sometimes they need to pee in an impossible setting, like, say, in the car when we’re trapped in a never ending traffic jam.
That’s when plastic bags come handy.
To practice this smart tip, I’ve also trained Darren to pee into a plastic bag, but he didn’t seem to like it much.

Anyway, last Thursday I finally had the guts to not put his diapers on when we went shopping. Before hand, I told him to tell us if he needs to pee.
I took him to the bathroom to pee right before we left. And about half an hour in the supermarket, I took him to the toilet to pee.
After that, we walked around (him sitting on the trolley) and bought stuffs for about an hour or so.
Busy remembering and checking what I needed to buy, I didn’t remember to bring Darren to pee again.

We went to our car and went directly home. On the way home, he fell asleep.
We reached home and I put sleeping Darren into bed.
He didn’t pee until he (almost) woke up.

I call this a toilet-training-triumphant day ^_____^

My dearest Darren, WELL DONE!! Mommy loves you so much and Mommy’s VERY PROUD of you!! –smooch… smooch…- ^o^

Men's rest room

When we had dinner in a restaurant downtown, for the first time ever in my life, I had to go into a gent’s rest room because Darren had to pee.

He’s doing great in his toilet training, meaning that he barely wets his pants during so long as he’s awake. But when we go out, I still put his diapers on, in case he wants to pee when we’re still in the car or in inconvenient places or in case he can’t hold his pee until we reach the right place.

So, back to the gents rest room.

Darren had his diapers on, but since he’s toilet trained, he’s still hesitant to pee into his diapers, so he would ask to go to the bathroom to pee.
I usually take him to the ladies’ room, but since it was occupied, I had no other choice than to check if the gents’ room was available (it was a small toilet so it was easy to immediately know that it’s empty, without me having to humiliate myself by peeping into it :P ).
I took Darren’s diapers off and he peed happily into the toilet.

Oh well, that’s a part of motherhood after all, going to men’s rest room included!