I don't read a ton of parenting books. I skim
topics of interest -areas that I am particularly unsure of, and look things up
as I go along. I rely a lot on my
mom friends far and near who have already traversed tough milestones like sleep
training, starting solids, weaning, and baby proofing. In the end, like most people, Chris and
I tend to solve most problems by incorporating what experts say, what the
internet says, what our peers say, and what is right for the individual personalities
of our twins.
I figured potty training would be the same. At 22 months
old, I expected that sometime in the near future we would start introducing the
idea of “the potty” and maybe in a few months, sometime near Christmas when Chris
was on vacation, we would start some more intensive potty training. I’m really not in any rush because, the
thing is, I don’t hate diapers. In
fact, I find them very convenient.
Even with the added laundry that cloth-diapering twins generates, I
still find the idea of diapers simpler than trying to take two squirmy toddler
to the restroom. To this
point, I’ve read a little on the topic, bought some portable potties, and
started vocalizing my actions when using the bathroom in front of the boys. Last week, my Mother of Multiples group
held a potty training seminar where a local expert and a panel of seasoned twin
moms answered questions about the nitty-gritty nuances of potty training. This was perfect timing since potty
training was on our horizon.
I learned a lot of good tips about potty training at our
seminar but much of the facts overwhelmed me. For instance, I had not considered that I might need more
than one set of potties (e.g. 4 instead of 2) to make using the toilet easier
for everyone involved. I did not
think about the fact that my kids need to start to learn how to take their
pants off (something that I was told invariably results in a period of time
where your children are always naked because they can in fact take off their
own clothes). It never occurred to
me that the jeans my guys usually wear are not ideal and that I would need to
infuse their wardrobe with some elastic waste pants so they can more easily get
their britches down. And the idea
of a “potty backpack”, or any sort of bag that I would use to carry a portable
toilet in which my kids would use in the car, had never occurred to me. I was, however, aware that consistency is key and that once
we started training, there would be no going back. Needless to say, I have been digesting some of these tidbits
while deciding how we were going to approach potty training in my
household. My plan was to think on
it for a bit longer, device a strategy and then when the time was right (i.e. when
I was ready to tackle the changes that were about to ensue) we would begin.
Thankfully Brady had a different idea. Two days after I
attended the potty training seminar, without any additional potty talk in the
house, Brady decided he wanted to poop in the toilet. Just before Chris was about to place him in the bathtub, Brady
looked at the toilet, pointed and said “Brady poop?”. I was not in the room at the time so Chris did what anyone
who had not recently attended a potty training seminar would do, he sat the boy on the
toilet. Minutes later I walked
past the open door and asked what was going on. Once filled in, I excitedly told Chris that Brady needed to
sit on his own potty on the floor because he would not likely poop if his feet
were dangling (I vaguely remembered just being told that feet needed to be on
the ground so the proper muscles could be engaged for pooping?). I brought them a potty and over the
next 10 minutes we all just kind of stood there starting at Brady who was
sitting on the toilet playing with a toy truck not really doing much of
anything. Every time we asked if
he was done (which was a lot because I was sure this was a stall tactic), he
would say “noooooo” in his cute little drawn out way, so we just waited. Finally, he stood and declared “Brady
pooped” and, shockingly, he was right.
Words could not express how proud I was of him at that moment. We made a big deal of flushing the poop
down the toilet and waving goodbye.
Shortly after this scene, Brody told me he wanted to sit on the
potty. Though he did not produce
any flushables, I was happy just the same. Clearly this was a sign that this was going to be easy, right?! One son had the insight and
drive to want to poop in the toilet and the other one was going to do it because
his brother did. Cakewalk.
Well, the last two days have been comical and a great reminder
that doing anything with twins is twice the work and twice the chaos. Since both boys had tried to use the potty,
I knew I had to keep the momentum going.
The next day I offered them a chance to sit on the potty first thing in
the morning. I undressed both boys, showed them the potties and waited. Both boys sat on the potty, but nothing
happened. Fine, no big deal and was
what I expected. The part that I
had not planned for was that now I had two naked boys who need to get
dressed. While I’m wrangling Brady
trying to get his clothes on, I look over and Brody is sitting bare-butted in
the toy box peeing. The next day,
I do the same thing; offer the first thing in the morning. After some sitting and Brady going pee
in the potty (yay!!), Brody manages to open the door and run down the
hall. As I grab clothes for both
boys and proceed to dress Brady, out of the corner of my eye I see Brody riding
his scooter around the living room, naked. (This is an image that will always make me giggle.) Next, I feel Brody tugging at my pant
leg and I see him pointing. In a
matter of seconds while I was closing up Brady’s shirt, Brody had managed to
poop on the floor. I turn my
attention to getting the poop off the floor before Adriane (our dog) ate it,
and I look up to see the boys start to tug-a-war with the potty that has urine
in it. Seriously, I can’t make
this stuff up.
Twin logistics will never cease to amaze me. No matter how you slice it -until they
learn to use the toilet-when I am alone, I will have one unattended naked
toddler. Preventing this naked boy
from peeing or pooping when I am not looking is going to take more effort than
I originally expected. I feel like these bathroom mishaps have initiated me
into the world of potty training but I also feel like this is another one of
those things that is just funnier because you are going through it with
twins.
P.S. I have some great picture of these shenanigans, but I draw the line at posting bare bottom pics on the blog. Use your imagination ;)
