41/52

41/52
Potty Break

 A portrait of my Avery, once a week, every week, in 2014

 

I can't pinpoint when it happened but at some point over the last few months my baby became a big boy. A really big boy. He loves getting dirty and picking his nose, he wrestles with everyone/everything, he runs around making blasting sounds with sticks, he eats on a big chair with us at the dinner table, and he wants privacy in the bathroom ("bye mama!" *closes the door in my face*)

Let me start off by saying that beginning this potty training adventure was 100% Avery's decision. Prior to this week, he had gone on the potty twice at random times and after a little prompting (and a fair amount of luck). I didn't get my hopes up but was glad he wasn't intimidated by the potty and knew how to use it.

On Tuesday morning, we had some friends over to play. At one point during their play, Avery's potty trained friend (who is a girl) decided she had to do her business and Avery decided he needed to watch her. A little later, Avery had finished his lunch and ran out of the room to play. About 10 minutes later, he came back into the kitchen pants-less and said, "Mama, poop! See!" Not really knowing what I was going to find, I followed him and to my utter shock found that he had indeed taken himself into the bathroom, removed his pants and diaper and pooped in his little potty - all before I even knew what he was doing!

I want to sing this from the rooftops: 

I haven't changed a dirty toddler diaper since Monday.

Avery has chosen to go #2 on the potty all week! Not only has he done this, but he has done it all by himself without much prompting (and in privacy, of course.) I'm trying not to get too excited because I know he's a long way from being considered 'potty trained' but I think something has clicked and all he needed was to watch his little friend use the potty to say, 'hey, if she can do this, so can I!' (thank you, Sara!!) He's so proud of this new big boy activity and so is his mama.