The High's And Low's

We were out in Connecticut last weekend for our MIRACLE nephew Charlie's baby blessing (pictures to follow soon!). While we were out there Gabe was playing with his two cousins Abby and Molly whom he ADORES! Abby is 6 and molly is 3. Gabe couldn't be in better company then he is with these two cousins. I am finally at the point where I don't have to watch him all the time and he can just go and play with them on the swing set outside or in the toy room and he is perfectly content not having me there with him. (finally!)

So, a little background to this story. I have been introducing gabe to the toilet for the past two months casually here and there to get him interested in potty training. We have had some success where he would see Nate or I head to the bathroom and he would come running ahead of us and take the toilet first.

So as we were out in connecticut I was trying to have gabe see that Molly was going on the potty and that she was a big girl doing it all by herself. He started to get the idea of it when one night he didn't want to get in the tub and I couldn't figure out why, until he started to pee all over the floor, that he wanted me to put him on the potty! (language is still an issue in our house with him!)

After we flew home I just decided while his mind was fresh with Molly and Abby, I thought I would start cold turkey and put him in big boy underwear then set a timer for every 15-20 min.

The first day was AMAZING! No accidents, no complaints, only enthusiasm and joy. It was going so well!!!! YIPEE! I couldn't believe it! But then he woke up the next day grumpy......and all went down hill from there. He screamed when we mentioned the potty, he had 3 accidents in his pants that morning and 2 more that afternoon. We had to do all that we could to get him to sit on the potty but he didn't want to go. I know this isn't how we should do it and we were trying desperately to make it fun and exciting for him and not complaining when he peed his pants, but when I am 20 weeks pregnant, patience is something that comes in a limited supply!

So after 3 days of begging and pleeding......we decided to put the diapers back on and see if we can still ask him to go potty on the toilet, but not make it as overwhelming as we did before. It seems to work, he is still going 3-5 times a day on the toilet so we are progressing. Just not in the method I thought!

But it truly helps when I do this:

Gabe can't be "one-upped" by woody! So he always gets on the potty after I give woody all of my praise and adoration for going potty! Hey you do what you have to do right!

So for you mom's out there. Do you have any tidbits on what I can do to help gabe get potty trained? I have 4 months until this baby comes so I wanted to give him a good head start on this so he doesn't regress! Any input would be great!