Diaper Free!

We did it!  We are officially diaper free (well, okay we still use diapers at night seeing as how Ethan still loves his crib and I for sure am not gonna clue him into the fact that he gets to roam around free if he wanted to switch to a, in his words, 'big fancy bed').

Even back when Ethan was still just a little nugget in my tummy, the only unpleasant part of raising a boy that I could think of was the potty training part.  And every time we decided to start potty training I would put it off because one of us was sick, or we were traveling, or we were moving, etc.  But once we moved back to CA and got over our jet-lag I decided enough was enough and we were going to tackle this potty training business once and for all.  After all, Ethan was ready.  He knew when he had to pee/poop and had expressed interest in going on the toilet several times.  So potty training commenced -just in time for him to christian our brand new carpet!

Ethan had some contingencies...He had to have underwear just like his Daddy.  No cute blue undies or ones with pictures of characters or cars (which was okay by me since I don't like character clothing, but good luck trying to find any toddler clothing that was plain and white!  After trying several stores I found you can buy Fruit of the Loom underwear at Walmart).  He also wanted to use the toilet like a big boy - not a small potty or even a training seat thankyouverymuch.

All in all it went very well.  We had a few accidents when he was so focused on playing he forgot (or was too lazy) to run to the toilet.  In the begining we would ask him if he wanted to go every half an hour or so as gentle reminder to use the bathroom.  Then he started to just zoom off the bathroom himself after announcing 'Who needs to pee pee?!'.  After three weeks of being fully potty trained in the house I was still afraid to take him outside sans diaper.  We started out slow, testing the waters by playing in our driveway or nearby at our local playground before I finally picked up the courage this week to venture out to eat at a restaurant and go shopping.  I'm happy to report, no accidents and he is okay using public toilets.  Woot!

It was a relatively painless process - aside from one tragic incident last week where he fell INTO a toilet.  He ran off to go to the bathroom and next thing I know I heard a loud crash followed by silence and then finally a loud wail.  When I got inside I found a soaking wet toddler amidst a soaking wet bathroom.  I don't even know where all the water came from.  When he calmed down he told me that the step stool slipped and he fell into the toilet arm first.  Lol.  Poor baby! 

Whew, another milestone crossed and more more step into becoming a big boy.  I'm a bit sad how quickly he is growing up!