A Promising Start

This morning, I was awakened at 6 am by the shuffle of little feet… out of bed… down the hall… and into the bathroom.  It took a minute for my brain to register that the footfalls were not Charles’s, but Jamie’s, and that he was going potty.  I got up to see if I could help, but he had his pants down and his diaper unsnapped and just looked up at me and said, “I had to go pee-pee, Mommy.”

 

I told him it was awfully early, and would he like to put on a clean diaper and come back to bed with me?  He indignantly cried, “I have a diaper right dere!”  I picked up his nighttime diaper and it was totally dry.  D. R. Y.  I snapped it back on him and led him back to bed.

 

 

He got up, finally (he and Charles both slept extra long this morning) at 7:30, ate breakfast, and was still dry when he got dressed at 8.  He toddled off, naked, to the bathroom to do his thing before we put underwear and pants on him.

 

After a particularly wet and dirty day Friday, a day on which he steadfastly REFUSED to wear a diaper, as he has every day since, I was feeling a bit defeated by potty training.  Why couldn’t he wait?  Why did he choose a week and a half before the end of tax season to decide he was ready to use the bathroom?  And did he just like the idea or was he actually ready?  Because I was not ready AND I was already tired of cleaning up messes.

 

Another problem is that he sometimes wants to go, desperately, but can’t.  Because, you know, he just wet his pants.  This is what happened Saturday morning, after we were completely on-time for Baby Boot Camp, until he decided that he needed to go pee-pee and threw a twenty-minute tantrum when none came out.

 

But then Sunday was better, perhaps because Tony took him and his brother fishing at a nearby lake and Jamie learned the fine male art of peeing outside.  Perhaps because it just takes time to “click” or something.  I don’t know.  All I know is that I am impressed.

 

Jamie is such a willful child.  When he decides he wants to do something, be it climb the tree or ride his tricycle or learn to use the toilet, he does it.  It might take him a long time to decide to do something, but once the decision is made, there is no turning back.  I’m a little in awe of him.

 

The teachers at pre-school say he does just fine pooping in the potty when he’s there, though he has yet to do this at home.  I hope he’ll hurry up and decide to, though, because I don’t know if I can handle more dirty underwear.

 

However, my loads of diaper laundry are significantly reduced.  I was hopeful, but not too sure, that we would have Jamie potty-trained by the time the new baby comes this summer.  Looks like we’ll reach that deadline with time to spare.