Potty Training Craziness

I have been working on potty training Jackson for about a week and a half now. All I have to say is that this has been quite an undertaking for me. I wake up first thing in the morning and think, "oh no, has Jackson gone potty yet?" And then spend literal hours of my life in the bathroom with him during the day. I mean, I'm sitting eating lunch and all I can think is, "in 10 minutes, Jackson is going to need to go potty." When you potty train, you really are living and breathing it. I remember when I was trying to get the kids to sleep through the night and all I could think about was when they were napping and eating, to try and maximize the likeliness of them sleeping through the night. This is the tenacity with which I have attacked potty training. I don't know why, it just seems like potty training is an all or nothing thing and I decided with Jackson almost turning 3, I cannot put it off anymore. 

So on Wednesday (June 24), I started the adventure of potty training. This is 2 days after my last blog post... apparently I was completely out of my mi

nd. I was inspired because I was taking care of a dog that was not potty trained and I figured, why not let the kids pee and poop all over the house with the dog. I don't know what I was thinking. And my original plan was to potty train both Jackson and Lila at the same time. After 3 hours with her in underwear, I changed my mind. She has no clue about the potty and that would have been torture for the whole family.

I used a system that I am not smart enough to have thought of. Basically, this is a system of timers, stickers, jelly beans and treasures. (sounds magical, right?) Every 20 minutes for about 3 days, we are in the bathroom working this system. For someone who is super laid back, I really had to devote myself to this and force myself to do it. And we have had some good success. He has been going in the potty really well and having minimal accidents. Some days, no accidents at all, and these are great successes. 

Then today he gets constipated and it's like we are starting all over again. He refused to go in the potty and all of a sudden started begging for a diaper. And I get depressed because apparently, this says something about Me and My abilities as a mother. Why is that? As soon as there is one small step backwards, this has something to do with me and how I am not doing something right? He's the one peeing in his pants. So, I've made a new decision. I are going to continue to take things one day at a time and celebrate the successes and be o.k. when things don't go exactly as planned. I mean, take a little bit of the pressure off of myself (and Jackson). At least I can rest secure in the fact that he will figure it out eventually and he will not be in diapers forever. I mean, how many teenagers do you know in diapers? 

~By the way, this picture is of Jackson on day 2 so proud with some of his treasures...the goggles and the motorcycle in his hand. And the bandaid is because he was washing his hands for the thousandth time and I walked out of the bathroom and he got Jeremiah's razor and tried to shave his face. Seriously.