It's Potty Time!

"Look Who's Talking Now" is not the best movie, by any means. But it does have one of my favorite scenes as far as parenting goes. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are trying to potty train their son. They bring home the kid's potty. Mikey looks skeptically at the thing, and sensing his trepidation, they try to make light of the situation and start dancing around with the potty singing Beastie Boys ('You gotta fight - for your right - to POTTY!') and Rick James ('My girl wants to potty all the time, potty all the time, potty all the time!). Funny before, but now that I have a toddler, hilarious.

So, cut to last night. Keeping Sydney entertained while I prepare dinner, I put Elmo's Potty dvd on. He found it fascinating. We've talked about the potty before. He got one for his 1st birthday, and every time he followed Mommy or Daddy in to the bathroom, we'd ask if he wanted to sit on Sydney's potty while Mommy or Daddy sat on the big potty. He plays with it often, and I think he knows, basically, what its for, though we've tried to be more specific lately with explaining why we sit on the potty.

Lovely details, I know. Bear with me. Yesterday we were playing after dinner. He came up to me at one point and said, "pee poop," which is what he calls going to the bathroom. I asked if he needed to pee-pee, and he ran for the bathroom, opened the door, and stood looking at the little potty.

Following him in there, I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty. He nodded yes, and we sat on the potty, fully clothed, for a moment. He grunted, his signal that something was wrong, stood up, and pulled at his pants. I was hesitant to strip him down since we hadn't practiced this yet, but went ahead and removed his pants. He sat again, in his diaper, looked around, grunted again, and stood up. "Offfffff"

I called Steve because I certainly didn't want to be trying to control a possible mess and a naked baby all by myself. We took off his diaper, sat him down again, and talked about going pee-pee in the potty. He looked down, unsure of what was happening, then stood up and asked for his diaper back. In the midst of trying to get him re-diapered, he then decided he wanted to try again. We sat, naked, on the potty again. Again, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing, and got up.

Steve asked me a question, distracting me. At that moment, I heard "Uh oh." I looked behind me and a rather large puddle of urine was spreading. I felt my clothes to discover he had peed on the floor and my back, and I burst out laughing.

Mess aside, and panicky child reassured, Steve and I are actually really proud of him. He's only 19 months and definitely showing signs of readiness for potty training. I plan to go full force once school's out, but I know its considered REALLY early for toddlers, regardless of gender. The truth is, he's been aware for a while now of when he's gone to the bathroom, and he is also able to keep his diaper clean for several hours at a time.

My little baby is growing up!