The last one is done!

I was going to post this a couple of days ago, but was afraid of jynxing myself.

A week ago I almost threw in the towel. I told myself "This is crazy. Why are you worrying about this while you're trying to go through chemo at the same time. LET IT GO Leah, just LET IT GO!"

And so I did.

And today, just one week later, I am declaring Audrey POTTY TRAINED!

Over the weekend Dean was outside with all the other kids. Audrey and I came in for a drinks. I checked my email and then I heard it…the music on her potty chair. It only works if the kid pees in it. I went into the bathroom and there she sat, in the dark, clapping for herself!!!

Oh Audrey! You are AMAZING!

She is taking herself, (she needs some help getting pants up/down) trotting herself into the bathroom several times a day. Waking up dry in the morning and going right to the potty, staying dry all day long.

This is it. Done. I have just potty trained my very last child.

Potty Talk

If you don't want to read about potty training, please X out now.

 For whatever reason the institutions in Serbia believe it is easier to keep a kid in diapers indefinitely than to potty train them. Think how expensive it is to put diapers on teens and adults!

When Asher came home at age 7, we had to wait a couple of months before working on potty training because he needed some reconstructive work done first. Once we started, and he peed in the toilet once, he was like "Oh THAT is what that toilet thing is for???" and potty training was complete.

Abel came to us at 10 years old. The caregivers in the institution told us he was afraid of the bathroom and toilets. Indeed, while we were still in Serbia he absolutely freaked out if we tried to get him to enter the bathroom. My guess is he wasn't afraid of the room, he was afraid of what had happened to him in a bathroom. Knowing how  he was treated there conjures up all kinds of images. But for Abel the lure of chocolate was far bigger than his fear of that room. We had him using the toilet within a couple of days, but didn't really plan on truly training him until we got him home. We arrived home on April 29th, and the last day he wore diapers was May 8th. Like Asher, he only needed to be shown what to do.

I didn't work any miracles, believe me. These were kids who should have been trained YEARS earlier but weren't given the opportunity. I just remove their pants for a day, give them a ton of liquids to drink, let them dribble on their own feet a couple of times, show them where the pee is supposed to go, and VOILA! Potty training is done. I will not ever profess to say this method will work with every child. It worked for *my* boys who, like I said above, should have been trained years earlier.

And now we have Audrey. She is 9 1/2 years old. She is six weeks older than Asher. She catches onto things very quickly and I have no doubt she should have been trained years ago. However, one of our biggest hurdles with Audrey is she does not drink enough liquids. Getting her to drink is extremely difficult. Because of this she hardly pees all day long! I change her at certain times of the day because I should, not because her diapers are necessarily super wet.

At this point in life I have very few days in which Audrey and I are home all day long and can dedicate those days to learning about using the potty. Yesterday we had a half day so off came the pants. Four hours and this child never peed. Not a drop. It is hard to teach a child where to deposit the pee if the child doesn't pee. I knew that as soon as I put a diaper on so we could leave the house she would pee, and that is exactly what she did.

Today we had only a couple of errands first thing in the morning and then we'd have several hours home, so off came the pants again. We are on hour  4 1/2 and she still has not peed. Not even a tiny drop. However, as I wrote that last sentence, she just sat herself on her potty seat and is giving me funny looks, so I'm hopeful. This potty seat plays music if she produces so I'm hoping to hear some music really soon!

Today is DDD

Ditch the Diaper Day

Yes, today is THE day. It is the day I get brave and put underwear on the new guy. I was going to wait until he'd been home a couple of weeks, or even a month, but he is SO ready! He's even peeing standing up because he's a great one for imitation. It was hilarious last night when Asher was standing at the toilet and Abel whipped down his pants to join him. 

He knows what to do on the toilet, now he has to learn the "when" part and the "when not to" part. 

Pray for me.