On the potty train

A good time to decide to actively potty train your toddler is the day your husband goes out of town for the week, right? Sure. We'll go with yes.

I was going to surprise Andrew with it when he came home but then I sent him a video of Alexander doing some wild climbing in the house and ever-observant Andrew noticed Alexander was wearing underwear and asked about it.

It's Spider-Man underwear, to be precise, and in two days we've only soiled one pair. Spider-Man gets sad when he's wet, see, and we don't want to make Spider-Man sad. We (ie. Alexander) love Spider-Man (though to be honest, I'm not sure why; I mean, he's seen Into the Spiderverse, but, like, that was months ago. Can babies even remember months ago? Anyway, that's all that he knows about Spider-Man, as far as I know, but somehow he can sing the theme song and absolutely adores Spider-Man). We just happened to have some 2T Spider-Man underwear tucked away from our adventures in potty training with Benjamin (which I don't care to talk about because it was a rather traumatic, never-ending train wreck and is still too fresh in my mind).

I decided to make the switch because I've been trying to slowly coax Alexander to use the potty but he has no sense of accountability in his diapers. In fact, when I've asked him to not "go" in his diaper he has told me—with a know-it-all mien—"Bam, oo tan doe in oor diaper!"

Translation: Yes, you can go in your diaper!

Once when I asked him if he'd gone in his pants again he said, "Nope. Nope. Not in mine pant. Don't worry, Mom—I dust doed in mine diaper!"

And I thought to myself, "Self, if your child can express himself that clearly—and understand the distinction between going in one's pants and going in one's diaper—then it is time."

So we're doing this (because I hate diapering).


Yesterday he had one accident, but he stayed dry when we went to organ lessons and used the potty well for the rest of the day. Today he didn't have a single accident (Spider-Man was very happy). He never has to go when I ask him if he has to go.

"No, I don't need to go potty! I don't!"

So I've been using the timer to remind me to check in on him.

Come to think of it, Andrew gets notifications every time I use the Alexa to set a timer and so he's probably super thrilled about that. "Alexa, set the timer for 20 minutes. Alexa, set the timer for 10 minutes. Alexa, set the timer for 10 more minutes."

Seriously, he never wants to go potty! So I start taking him more and more frequently, hoping that he'll go, and feeling increasingly nervous that he's going to have an accident because he never has to go. I've told him that when he starts telling me he has to go (instead of making me ask him incessantly) then I will stop making him sit on the potty every 20 (or 15 or 10 minutes; we move into smaller and smaller increments as the time between "goings" lengthens).

It sounds like a good deal to me, but he hasn't caught on yet, though he loves cheering every time he goes and he's memorized—and demands I "bing" (or sing)—Here's a Ball for Baby (which you can hear here, although this is not the tune that we use; the one my mom taught me is so much better), so we've sung that song approximately 200 times today.

But I'm relieved things are going arguably well so far (and I'm crossing fingers our potty train doesn't crash).

Oh, when Benjamin saw him coming to the breakfast table wearing his super cool Spider-Man underwear, Benjamin said, "Alex! You're wearing underwear! Are you a big boy now?!"

And Alex answered (with equal enthusiasm), "No! I tiny boy!"