Potty-Training 102

We're at it again, this time with kid #2: potty-training!  There are so many highs and lows, so many victories and failures, so many pull-out-your hair moments that it's amazing I still have hair after this week.  A friend once told me that all of her worst parenting moments happened during potty-training, and I can resonate with her!  When our son gets off the potty and instantly starts peeing on the floor, when I'm cleaning out poopy underwear again, and when he's crying in the bathroom because I had to leave him alone for a few minutes while tending to another kid, I wish I could run away and hire someone else to do this job for me.  It's been a long week in the bathroom, but by golly this precious boy is going to learn how to use the potty!

We were hoping that this kid would be easier, not only because potty-training Caleb was so awful that anything in comparison would have to be easier, but also because Kai has shown interest in using the potty (whereas Caleb had no interest at all - I'd say he even had negative interest).  We debated potty-training Kai before we moved to Africa just to have it behind us, but we decided against it because there were so many other transitions happening that adding potty-training on top of it all probably would've been too much.  So we waited and weren't sure when it would happen.  Kai has continued to show interest in using the potty, but we didn't force the issue because, let's be honest, there's never a really good time to potty-train a kid!  But we finally decided it was time, not only because now is just as good as any other time, but also because I will be starting language study next week and we didn't want to ask our househelper to change Kai's diapers for the next three months while I'm gone everyday.  So here we are, in the thick of it!

All in all, this time has been a bit easier than the last time.  Kai is willing to sit on the potty whenever I ask him to and he loves being rewarded with a Skittle afterward.  He had some successes right away and I was thrilled.  He was thrilled too!  But every success was countered with accidents, and he usually wouldn't tell me that he'd peed his pants because he apparently doesn't mind walking around in wet underwear (unlike Caleb who wailed mightily and froze on the spot every time he wet himself).  So there have been a lot of messes to clean up this week, which is annoying enough except that it's compounded by the fact that we only have 7 pairs of underwear in total for this boy, so I can't afford to just throw away the disastrously poopy underwear messes, and getting them cleaned/dryed in time for the next day is hard since it's currently rainy season and there's limited time to dry underwear on the line before the rain comes each day.  I only brought one package of underwear for him because I didn't know when we'd need it or what size he'd need when the time came, and I didn't want to waste precious space in our luggage for an extra package of toddler underwear.  (I know it sounds crazy, but unless you've packed for your entire family for two years, you can't understand how difficult it is to make decisions like whether or not to bring extra underwear for your not-yet-potty-trained kid.)  The other major difficulty is that I've been alone in working on this potty-training project.  Eli hasn't been around to help much at all, whereas last time he took a long weekend off with the purpose of helping out with potty-training.  It was so much easier to have Eli's help!  Now it's harder to keep my frustrations in check and I don't get any chances to pass the baton when I need a break.  All that to say, kid #2 has been easier than kid #1, but the circumstances are a lot harder.

It's been a long week, but there's hope on the horizon.  After a full week, including a major regression on Day 6, I think he's getting there and I'll be okay to leave him during language study.  At least that's my prayer!  And when I'm insanely frustrated with this entire process, I'll try to remember this picture of our son in his new underwear and thank God for this precious and adorable child who sits on the potty and whispers, "I'm a big boy!"