"I think it'll rain down - down on me"

Elmo has been trained - Hurray!

Buck Loves LA and I love this shirt (from K & G)


This is the week that I potty train Buck.

He's 2.something years old. Birthday in August, so it is a fine time to get him started. You wouldn't BELIEVE (maybe you would) the amount of advice I receive on this one parenting event: Wait till he's 3, no boys want to train before 3; Let him run wild with no underware on so that he can pee freely outside; give him prunes and juice only so that he is like a constant stream of refuse;don't take him anywhere for the first week; don't have people over for the first week; don't watch tv while trying to get his concentration up; watch tv all day so that he's not bored; be careful not to let him get constipated because he'll never want to poop in a potty; watch "Elmo goes potty" 100 times; watch "Once Upon a Potty 200 times - but only the correct version (they are gender specific)"...there is A LOT of advice.

But, like all of the advice I've received about raising Buck, I'm taking it with a grain of salt.

Turns out I wasn't ready for him to be trained before now. I am lazy. I did not (still don't) relish the idea of running to the nearest potty whenever we are out somewhere - scoping the place out for a washroom/bathroom like a urination spy. Grocery stores, malls, gas stations, intensely difficult boutiquy stores where intentionally childless women glare at me for my ability to produce young pee-ers who will need to wipe their hands on Egyptian cotton hand towels (I should probably avoid those stores anyway).

But my least exciting future pee prospects are the airplane as we are ascending and the car ride to Montana where I have my bi-monthly Target fix. At least we have a boy, but we haven't even BEGUN to navigate the "pee & stand" posture.

It is a mommy rite of passage to get this little dictator-tot to urinate and defecate into a porcelain bowl - and I have recently decided that I am up to the challenge. I decided this weekend, actually, and we began our odyssey on Monday.

I read a "How to train your child in 3 days" digital book (purchased for $20 is more like it) and they recommended "training" a favorite doll first. We chose Elmo, because he was the most likely to fit into Buck's training pants. Buck and I spent Monday (after dropping off K & G at the airport) teaching Elmo to use Buck's potty: Listen for when Elmo needed to go, RUN to the potty, pull down our underpants, wait to pee or poop (this is where I used a dropper to simulate pee), celebrate when Elmo "went", pull up underpants, wash hands, get M & M and sticker for the chart. Yes, Elmo has his own chart. It was a semi-complicated process which many of my mommy friends laughed at me for using. Thing is, we've been "sorta" training Buck for a few months and I needed him to see that this week would be different - organized - no going back. I needed Buck to see that we were serious with Elmo.

You'll be happy to hear that Elmo has not had an accident in days. I think that stuffed animal has really made a breakthrough.

We moved on to Buck's actual training on Tuesday (yesterday). Stay tuned for later today when I will document that lovely day.

My favorite part so far is the phone call from a friend who is simultaneously training her son. Her advice? "Don't give up. Don't yell and know that he'll get it. I was terrible frightened and it turned out ok." Sigh.