Wiggins World!!!: Potty Training Boot Camp

As it has been written a couple of blog posts ago, this weekend is potty training 101 for our little man. We bought the underwear, stocked up on activities and food and are hunkering down for the weekend to get this guy off and running with using the potty. It has been good so far- a bit better than I expected, but also somewhat frustrating, because we know as adults what he needs to do, but convincing a sometimes stubborn 2.5 year old of this can be a bit challenging!
Yesterday we changed underwear 15 times, and his sheets twice! I counted as I folded the laundry this morning. :P We have discovered that in general he has great bladder control, and is also good at tuning his parents out. :) He is able to stop peeing once he starts in his undies, and we rush him to the potty without being negative, just saying "aw man your underwear isn't dry anymore, remember you need to tell us when you have to go potty!" Once at the potty he usually goes, at least a little, which is when you have a potty party and do the potty dance. It doesn't matter if he just releases 2 drops, you dance, sing, high five and give the kid a sticker. Positive reinforcement is the key to this method. Which is good for Asher because he really does well with this in general, as most kids do I imagine.
He has yet to have a bowel movement, but I think it is imminent! We have been feeding him lots of fruit, mini wheats, veggies and some high fiber breakfast crackers called Belvita, in addition to his usual foods.
The part that has been a bit frustrating to us is when we see him doing the "I have to go" wiggle dance but still won't tell us he has to go. It is really really hard to not ask him if he has to go or just take him to the potty, because that goes against the method. We are only to say "Be sure to tell Mommy and Daddy when you have to go potty ok?!" Or "I can see you have to go potty- be sure to tell us when you need to go!" He needs to have control over it and learn to rely on his body's signals, not on us to tell him when to go. This is the major part of this method and what makes it work so quickly. We give him lots of praise because he learns to be a big kid and do it all on his own.
The only exception is before bed time. Then we tell him "Before bed we need to go pee." and have him try but no forcing or making him stay on the potty for an extended period of time. I did this just before his nap and he went quickly! He chose the little training potty over the big potty for the first time and thought that was pretty cool. It is nice because he can see exactly what he did.
Last night we got into a power struggle because he decided it would be more fun to sit on the potty than go to bed. I made him get up because he wasn't going and he cried really hard. I told him I couldn't understand him when he was crying so he should stop and he said "but I want to cry." Such a funny little man. I got him into bed, where he was extremely wiggly and he finally said "I have to go potty." To which I said "do you really have to go or are you just saying that?" and he said he had to go and he did!! This was at about 915pm. He stayed dry until sometime in the early morning- I checked him at 4am and he was dry, at 7am when he woke up he was wet. Better than I thought would happen actually! When I got him back in to bed he said "Mommy's grumpy. I'm not grumpy anymore, I'm happy!" Which of course snapped me out of my grumpiness. :)
In between the frustrating parts we are having some fun and definitely bonding!! One of us stalks him and never lets him out of our sight and the other takes care of Hannah and whatever else needs done!
Take a look at our little journey over the last couple of days, and Happy Fourth of July!

Last evening in a diaper and last diaper change!