The Potty Master

So we have started to work with Caleb on potty training. Nothing serious just yet, but when he saw his cousin, Hayden, use the potty, Caleb was very interested. So, we bought him his own potty to use. At first, he had no idea what to do on the potty. We told him that if he went pee-pee in the potty he would get a treat. Well, sweet little Caleb would sit on the potty and then stand up, cheer and ask for a treat! But he never went pee-pee. When we tried to explain that he needed to pee-pee in the potty he would sit back down, point to his pee-pee and then the potty and say, "Pee-pee potty, Mommy. Treat!" As if to say, "Here is my pee-pee and I am on the potty now where is my treat!" It took a week or two but finally he understood what we wanted him to do as we changed our terminology to "tee-tee on the potty." This helps avoid the confusion over the noun pee-pee and the verb! :)

Now however, we have discovered what a clever little one we have. You see Caleb has already found a way to beat the system. When he tee-tees on the potty he gets to put a sticker on his Potty Chart and he gets one M&M. Once his potty chart is full of stickers we go to Walmart to pick out a special treat. It didn't take long for Caleb to figure out how this little system works. Now, he asks to go tee-tee about 6 times a day. We can't say no, because what if he has started to understand that he needs to go? So we take him to the potty. Caleb goes the tinniest little bit and then stands up and cheers and then yells, "Sticker! Treat!" Last night, Caleb put the last sticker on his chart and calmly turned to me and said "All stickers go Walmart, Mommy!" We have learned that Caleb is not asking to go potty because he has the urge, but because he suddenly remembers the stickers and treats! Oh well, one day he'll get it. But for now, our two year old has figured out how to outsmart his potty training parents!