Monday, June 8, 2009

Proud....and not so proud moments ; )

Xander pooped on the potty today! Any parent that has potty trained a child knows this is a big thing. It was completely unexpected too. He's been saying a lot lately that he wants to pee on the potty, and of course I completely encourage this. A lot of times he gets on there and no pee comes out but it's the effort that counts. Last night he said he wanted to, and I was busy doing something else and kind of doubted him, so I told him to go into the bathroom, take off his diaper and pee in the potty....and he did!

Today, he said he wanted to pee. So off we went. When he got off, there was poop (sorry for being graphic). I'm telling you, if I hadn't been afraid of ripping my abdominal muscles, I would have turned a cartwheel. I've frequently read that positive reinforcement when a child exhibits positive behaviour is much more effective than negative reinforcement when they do something you don't want them to. Poor Jessica, I didn't know about this when she was younger. So I praised the heck out of him and gave him a reese's peanut butter cup.

The other thing we did today? I bought him a doll. Not just a doll, a Barbie doll. Not just a Barbie doll, but a purple mermaid Barbie doll. Jessica has a couple and he's been feeling kind of sad that he doesn't, so I bought him one (this was even before the pooping on the potty). It kind of amuses me that my son wants a Barbie doll, so I've been hearing myself say "your doll" this and "your doll" that more than I would refer to any doll Jessica has. ("William wants a do-oll, William wants a do-oll").

Right now he's playing with motorcycles, so I doubt this will have any negative effect on his long term mental health.

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