Monday, February 1, 2010

Tales from the Potty


As I mentioned in my previous post, Andrew is doing GREAT with potty training...with one minor setback....he's terrified of any potties but ours at home. There's a valid reason for his fear, let me explain how that happened.

A few weeks ago we had to drop my dad off at the airport during the day. It was just me and the kids and my dad. When we got to the airport Andrew said he had to go potty. So my dad stayed with the other two in the van while I ran in with Andrew to go to the bathroom. We made it. He climbed on up and was halfway through peeing when the blasted toilet flushed. It was one of those automatic flushers and was SO LOUD! He was scared out of his mind, I think that he thought that the toilet was going to swallow him. So, he wouldn't finish going potty, he said he was done but I knew that he just wanted to get out of there. As soon as we got back on the road he started saying, "Mommy, the pee pee is coming!" over and over and over. But there was no way that I was stopping and dragging all three kids into some gas station bathroom so I told him he just had to hold it till we got home. About 20 minutes later I heard, "Oh no mommy, the pee pee came!" Great. He was so upset.

Ever since that experience he refuses to use other toilets and keeps talking about the scary potty. It's a real problem. Saturday we were at my mom's house for a couple hours in the morning while Joe was at work and guess what, as soon as we got there he had to go potty. After lots of unsuccessful attempts by me and my mom to get him to sit on the potty, it was starting to look like an accident was unavoidable. As a last resort, I asked Sam if he would go outside with us and show Andrew how to "water the grass". He did and Andrew followed his example. So there it was, like 40 degrees and my boys are in the backyard peeing. But there was no accident!

Hopefully, he'll overcome this fear soon, but until then he may be watering lots of grass along his way!

5 comments:

Melanie said...

He he....that's too funny. Poor kid, though. I hope it doesn't traumatize him for life. :)

Amy said...

Ashlyn was the same way at Christmas she was afraid to go because grandma's potty didn't have a Dora seat. Maybe if you carried one of those around and he could sit on something familiar when he went but then again like your going to keep that in your diaper bag.

Lindsey said...

Jenna went through a similar fear. It drove me crazy!!! I even bought one of those portable folding seats. Waste of money, she just eventually got over it. Good luck :)

The Lovells said...

We resorted to having a potty in the car. Letty was afraid of the "loud" toilets. Even now she instinctly covers her ears and she is 5! Good Luck!

Reid Family said...

I hate those automatic flushers! How scary for little Andrew! What a priceless story you'll love to tell him someday! He is so cute! Hope he gets over his fear soon for you sake ")