We’re almost three weeks into Jonathan’s potty training. And that seems high time to talk about all things potty training and the transition to daycare.

It’s certainly an interesting time when your life seems to be going so well and you’re in a good little rhythm of no longer having to worry much about blow-outs, you head out the door with a diaper and some wipes and don’t think much of it, to now revolving yourself on having a potty on hand or being very near a potty!

Jonathan is 2 years and three months old, and Harrison was almost exactly two years old when we potty trained. I can safely say having now potty trained two little boys, it is not my most favorite thing in the world to do. But it’s a necessary evil.

I read, and we followed….for the most part….Oh Crap! Potty Training. When following a methodology, I like having a hard-copy printed book to reference back to during the process. That’s just my preference. You can check it out from library, but truthfully, I think it’s just helpful to have the copy with you, especially on day 1.

On day 1, for both boys, I spent a full day in the kitchen with my naked toddler, solely focused on them. Day 1 is grueling, honestly. I confine us to a room because (1) the kitchen has nothing in it that is hard to clean of any bodily fluid that may get in on it, and (2) a confined smaller area is just easier for me to manage. By the evening of night 1, I fell asleep at a very reasonable 9:00, but I honestly felt like I could have passed out at 8:00. Watching a toddler’s every last movement all day is truly exhausting!

By Day 2, I wasn’t convinced in the morning when the boys got up that they were ready for clothes yet. We spent the morning again in the kitchen, naked. The boys, not me. Jonathan was begging me to leave to go outside and go mow, and surely I wasn’t serious about sticking with this peeing in the potty thing! By late morning, though, the boys each seemed to show that they had the general concept under their belts. Were they perfect? No. But it was time to move on to clothes wearing again, and leaving the kitchen.

This is where things got interesting for potty training. With Harrison, we potty trained in the middle of the lockdown of a pandemic. We had nowhere to go for months and months on end. With Jonathan, though, we put on clothes, without underwear, and proceeded with our day.

We walked to the grocery store as his first big outing as a big boy, and played outside, always with the little potty close at hand. By the end of Day 2, Jonathan was cruising.

We continued on with potty training without underwear for several more days with Jonathan. Because Harrison was home with us during a pandemic, he went weeks with no underwear. But Jonathan needed to be transitioned to go back to daycare by the end of the week, so after days of longer, but still reasonable, outings, we moved to adding underwear back in on day 5 for Jonathan.

Transitioning back to daycare went fairly well for Jonathan. I packed three sets of fresh clothes for him each day in these first few weeks that he’s still very much learning and understanding how long he has to hold it before he gets to the potty. His first day back, I walked him over to the potty in his room, and helped him use the potty before leaving him for the day so he understood that’s where he would go from now on. Most days he has at least one accident, and I’m pleased with that. He had the general concept down, and each day he seems to improve. It’s progress over perfection!

Which boy was easier to potty train? I don’t consider Jonathan fully potty trained yet, but I’d say Jonathan. Who’s to say if it was because he was a bit older than Harrison, or honestly the mental load of the pandemic on top of potty training with Harrison. Either way, I’m a bit more at ease with Jonathan than I was with Harrison.

Is there anything enjoyable about potty training? No. In my opinion, no. Except the promise that some day you will not be wiping someone else’s butt. But I think it’s way more work to be potty training than it is to have a kid still in diapers. I will say, I did enjoy my one-on-one time with Jonathan. We hadn’t had a lot of time with just the two of us the way that Harrison and I did for so long with my flex Fridays off from work. So, if I had to find something enjoyable about potty training, it would be that.

Did I consider using a different method with Jonathan versus Harrison? Meh. No. I feel like the gist of potty training is the same. The end result is the same. The methodology worked fine the first time around, so why change.

What was/is Nathan’s involvement? I kind of lead the potty training show. I told him two years ago while doing this with Harrison that if I take potty training, he’s taking teaching him to drive. What works best for us in a lot of parenting things is for one of us, (hey that’s me), does all the research/reading/deciding on a course of action, and then educates high level on the approach to the other. If necessary we refine, tweak, etc. And in this case, I implement by doing the hard nitty-gritty of the potty training. But Nathan does his fair share of hauling kids to the potty, wiping butts, etc. when he’s home from work. Oh and lots of praise. The boys LOVE the adoration of their dad, so it’s almost better that they get to show off their new skill to Dad, who lays it on thick with praise and excitement.

That’s potty training at the Lane household! Potty training not your thing? So far out of the potty training days that you can’t even remember having your life revolve under where is the closest potty? Come back tomorrow for how I thought I squirrel proofed pumpkins only to find out that our squirrels are relentless.