Adventures in Potty Training

I really think that this picture says it all! Despite my extreme resistance, we have started down the potty training road. Since we are moving in a few weeks I wanted to wait until we were settled to make this big change. However, months ago Merrick started asking to use the potty. At first he would sit on it for half a second and then jump off. Then he decided the the potty was a fun place to be and would have sat on it for hours if I would have let him. But no matter how long or short the time on the potty was, nothing ever made it into the bowl. After about a month of sitting with no result, Merrick must have gotten tired of it too because he began providing his own "pshhhh" sound effect to potty time.

All the unproductive trips to the bathroom did not bother me at first, but after a while I started to resist them. When we were out in public I really did not want to stop whatever errand I was running to let him pretend to go potty. It started happening at church as well. In the church nursery Merrick would tell them that he needed to go potty. They would come and get me out of class and I would let him sit on the potty and then take him back to class.

I think eventually Merrick began to sense my resistance to the whole process and he stepped up his game. One day after two cups of warm water on his tummy, we had our first taste of success. Since then it has been one step forward, three steps back. What I do know is that he is trying his hardest (and pushing his hardest for that matter). I would be happy to wait until we get settled in Oregon to work on this, but he is determined to try. I guess we will just take it slow and we will get there some day.