Potty Training...

Potty training is a really hard thing to accomplish with some kids. One would think that by the time you get to your 4th child you would have it down and it would just be second nature.

This is not the case, at least not with Jacob and I.

We tried for quite some time, I think I started back in August 2010. So it has been more than 4 months of trying to be nice, sweet, tender, loving, frustrated, mean, angry, concerned.

Some kids just don't want to do it when you want them to.

So, I tried buying toys for him and every time he would go poop in the toilet he would get a new toy. He didn't do anything the first two days. But on the 3rd day we had a party because I didn't have to change any stinky undies. Then I think it was 4 or 5 days of clean underwear. Then the kid just got lazy again, I still had some great new toys in the basket, and he wanted them but he struggled. Hm!

After a few days of changing stinky undies I decided that if he continued to go poop in his undies then I would take a toy away. His reply was, "alright, mom." I would even take his most favorite toy and he would still reply, "alright, mom." He got into the routine of even getting me a toy to put in the "poop basket", and it would usually be a toy that he loved playing with that very day.

I was talking with members of the church and they kept telling me that if a parent goes to the temple they could ask specific questions about their children and they will receive answers. No matter how small the question may seem.

I thought I should really put this to the test. I really felt silly asking about how to potty train a 3 year old. But knowing that Heavenly Father loves us and knowing that he knows all of my frustrations and knowing that he wants us to come to him for all things. I felt that I had enough faith to know that he will be there for me and that he could really truly answer my prayer. So the question came out, "what should I do about Jacob and potty training?" I know that prayers need to be more specific, but I really didn't know what else to say.

The next day Jacob pooped in his undies, I went into the bathroom with him and was very sad that he didn't go in the toilet. Jacob was sad too because he was saying, "sorry mama, sorry." I felt like it was just a task that needed to be done. I was sad but very neutral with the situation.

As I started to change his diaper, I felt a whisper, "put him back in diapers." I thought, "really? I should put him in diapers again? What is that going to accomplish? He goes potty really well. And I know he can go poop in the toilet, he just has to want to." But the feeling came again, "put him back in diapers. A child should not poop in underwear and he thinks he can, so put him back in diapers." So, I did right at that very moment. I took all of his underwear out of his drawer, and I told him, "Jacob, you are going to wear diapers until you are ready to poop in the toilet. Poop goes in diapers not underwear." Of course he said, "alright, mom."

Jacob has been in diapers for one week now. He gets frustrated with the diapers, and he still goes potty in the toilet. He has gone poop in the toilet 2 times so far, but it wasn't much. He also got to get a couple of new toys.

Tonight we were talking about how his baby brother is going to be coming soon and we started talking about diapers for some reason, and Jacob said, "ew, I not a baby, I a big boy, I don't need diapers."

Boy oh boy do I hope that is true.