Potty Party

Well, I did it. One of those things that I have always thought was kind of ridiculous: I threw my son a Potty Party. But now I know why other Mom's do it...When you are desperate, you'll try anything. We have been working on potty training forever. Braylon has never disliked the potty or been afraid or refused to go. In fact for about the last six months, he has been out of Builders (or Pull-Ups as the normal people call them) and in underwear....He would use the potty anytime we took him. The problem was, up until about three weeks ago, in a stubborn move I blame on his Daddy, he refused to tell us when he had to go. So we were playing a game of luck. If we were lucky enough to take him to the potty at the right time, we were ok. If not, big mess for Mama to clean up. So we came up with the Potty Party idea. Braylon requested two things: cupcakes and jello. In order to have his party, he had to have three days in a row without going in his pants. To keep track of this and to encourage him, we made a Potty Party Calendar. Every time he told us he needed to go or took himself to the potty he got a check mark on his calendar (yellow for pee, brown for poop). If he didn't tell us and lets say, pulled down his pants and peed in his TV chair or went and hid under the table to poop, he got a frowny-face on his calendar (sorry for all the details, but those of you who haven't had to potty train yet, I'm just warning you, and those of you who have, have seen way too much for this to gross you out) . So after three weeks and several postponed potty parties, we finally met our goal. Yesterday was Potty Party Day. We kicked it off by decorating a pair of underwear for him to wear. They said Hip, Hip, Hooray, Its Potty Party Day on the front and Good Job Braylon on the butt. And Braylon covered them with multi-colored poka dots. Then we had the big shin-dig. Lots of food that was not good for us, but was fun: pizza, jello-jigglers, cheese curls, funfetti cupcakes with sprinkles and candy party hats on top, and blue Kool-Aid. Thanks so much to April, Mark, Paula, and Lydia who came to celebrate with us and put up with our craziness! But when it was all said and done, it was fun. And Braylon had a blast. That's worth me looking ridiculous. And it will hopefully pay off big time in terms of potty training. I think he is almost there!