Potty Training & Reward Charts

It has been awhile since I have updated on potty training and I know y'all are dying to know what is going on, right? Every one of those stickers is for peeing on the potty. I made him the reward chart and stuck it up in the bathroom. I just used some old poster board and got 1,000 stickers for £1 at Poundland so it wasn't expensive to implement.

As you can see from all the cars he is doing well but that also means he is going a lot. Sometimes he asks to go just to stare at his stickers--seriously. He also has a little sticker book that we used this weekend at his Grandma's house so he is still getting rewarded when away from home.


No pooping on the potty yet which is kind of annoying but I feel like if we can get one he'll be good to go in the future. I gather from others that not pooping on the toilet is normal so I'm not too worried. 


We know he is young so again we aren't pushing it but he asks to go himself now so we are moving forward. If anyone has any tips for the elusive poo in the potty that would be great! We got some Mickey Mouse big boy undies in the US as well so hopefully that will encourage him?

Adventures in Potty Training

Sometimes I really miss our lovely old wooden floors from our old flat but then I realize if we did have wooden floors they'd be ruined by now. They'd be black, rotting ruined excuses for floorboards by now because Blondie Boy pisses everywhere. Part of it I think is he is just little and part of it I think is that he just likes pissing on stuff like Nathan from "Angry Boys."

He knows he shouldn't do it; he'll soak the coach and then point at it "bad bad bad." That's great you know you aren't supposed to do it, but how about not doing it then? I know you are thinking" why don't you just stick a diaper on the kid and call it a day?" Ahh if it were only so easy.

Blondie Boy has eczema and right now it's taken up residency on his ass. It's pretty horrible so we try to let him run around commando as much as possible to keep it from being ever redder and angrier. It also allows us to put some hydrocortisone on it as needed as you can't put that on and then cover it up.

I understand he's little and his attention span and multitasking skills aren't going to be highly developed at 20 months, that's okay. My plan today was to take him to the toilet every 30 minutes and have him sit. Before I hit the thirty minute mark I'd already taken him three times; each of those times he'd started pissing on something first: first some sprinkles on the floor, next he climbs up on the couch and I feel something warm on my leg and thirdly he climbs up on his plastic chair to begin a monster pee which puddles and pours off the chair from both sides in a urine waterfall.

I'd say I gave up, but it was his bedtime so he got creamed up and a diaper on for bed but in reality I don't know how much longer I could have kept it up if it wasn't. Does anyone have any stellar tips they can share? He is more than happy to sit on a toilet or potty and pee in both. He knows Mom and Dad go on the toilet and told me that Daisy Duck uses the toilet (good for her). I know getting them to sit/use the toilet is often a big problem so I guess maybe we are half way there, but how do I stop him from peeing everywhere? Or am I doomed to a future of damp couch cushions and wet marks on the floor where I'm just happy he drinks so much water it doesn't stain?

Travelling with a Toddler

Tomorrow we are leaving on a proper vacation. What the freak makes it proper you ask? It's a vacation which has the sole purpose of being a vacation. Being an expat means that a lot of your vacations are actually trips to visit friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing them, but I'm really excited to being going on a proper holiday which for me includes a beach and our very own OUTDOOR pool!


This will be our third trip with Blondie Boy so I thought I'd pull together a list of what I think are must haves for travelling with a toddler. Some of these I haven't tested or tried yet, but like I said it's my opinions, not facts.

Trunki: Unless you've never been in an airport ever you'll have seen a Trunki; I saw at least ten over the past two weeks when I flew to Manchester and London. Not only are they ridiculously cute, but they are functional. Your child can ride on it, you can pull them on it while you use it to schlep their carry-on stuff on the plane. Blondie Boy has been pushing it around the living room all week so I can't wait to see what he does at the airport.


Salter Luggage Scales: I hate packing; I am always overpacking and don't even get me started on how I jam everything into our suitcase when we come home from the US (I may or may not bring an extra bag just for food). On more that one occasion we've had to shuffle items from one bag to another so they were the right weight.  You attach the Salter luggage scales to your bag, lift it by the handle, and wait for the beep to see the total weight. No more embarrassing moments at check-in and no more excess luggage fees!

New toys and books: The tip mentioned to me most often is to bring toys and books your child has never seen before to keep them entertained. I've already broken that by letting Blondie Boy play with his Megasketcher but I love that the pen is attached to the board so he can't drop/throw it away. Luckily my Mother-in-law has gotten him some new books as well.


Change of clothes in your carry-on: I'm not just talking about for your toddler here; pack an extra top for you, too. Do you want to sit in a puked on, peed on or food smeared shirt for an extended period of time? I didn't think so.


Snacks: I don't like airplane food and chances are your toddler won't either. Pack snacks you know they like and are easy to eat. Things like snack bars or fruit pouches which your toddler can slurp. If the pouches are more than 100ml you'll have to taste them but 100ml or smaller and you are good to go.


A baby carrier: If your child is still light enough use a baby carrier. We used one when we flew with Blondie Boy at 5 months and it was amazing. He fell asleep in it and I could carry him while eating a Sausage McMuffin; I call that a win-win situation.

A compact stroller: We are taking our Nuna PEPP with us on the flight. It folds up easily and compactly, but doesn't slack on style or function. I've been happy with how it's worked for travelling around Glasgow and I'm interested to see how it does travelling abroad.


Travel Cot: Blondie Boy still sleeps in his crib so trying to put him to sleep in a regular bed is just not going to work. We're taking a Mamas and Papas Sleep Travel Cot. It is compact and portable, but still very spacious, sturdy and stylish. Hopefully Blondie Boy will like sleeping in it!

Pourty: I've talked about the Pourty before and since we know Blondie Boy likes using it as a potty and it is portable we are taking it with us on our trip. No reason for potty training to stop just because we are going on holiday. It also means we can dispose of everything in the potty easily and without mess.




What are your *must* haves for travelling with a toddler? Am I forgetting anything?


Some, but not all, of these products were provided to Transatlantic Blonde to review but all opinions are my own.

Poopscapades

So you know we are potty training and we are being pretty laid back about it. The events of the past week have made me want to padlock a diaper on Blondie Boy's cute little tush.  If you don't like reading about poop, you may want to stop here so dont' say I didn't warn you.


The first incident resulted when while Blondie Boy was running around I thought I saw a brown mark on his bum, inspected said mark looked around the floor but merely found the Emma dog licking her lips.  Now the evidence was purely circumstantial and I'm sure no judge or jury would have convicted her, but needless to say I couldn't look at her the same.


Move forward a few days and Blondie Boy again is frolicking about naked as he likes to do, seriously this kid is a stripper, and I see it drop from his bum to the floor. He then sprints across the room dropping presents on the floor along the way. This time as I scream "Noooo" I watch in disgust as Miss Emma eats up the chocolate treats greedily.


His "shit and sprint" is repeated the next day but luckily this time we are able to keep Emma away.  I still can't quite look her in the eye though knowing what she's done.  We have a few poopscapade free days and then while I'm sitting in a board meeting I get this text from NBH:


"For Blondie Boy's next trick, how about pulling your nappy to the side under your PJs, shitting down the leg of your still-fastened PJs into the foot and then smushing it about with your got so both your PJ foot and foot are ingrained with shit. Had to bath him."


It took every ounce of willpower not to burst out laughing when I saw it flash on my iPhone. Also I was secretly excited because I could finally use this emoticon which I've been dying to use since I download Emoji.

So what is the point of this blog post, other than to obviously have my son hate me some point down the road? I don't know but maybe someone else has similar stories? Or you know of some scatological sporting events I could enter him in? Bueller? Bueller?

Adventures in Potty Training

Potty training has begun! Thank you everyone for your advice and tips.  We aren't doing anything hardcore and certainly don't expect Blondie Boy to be potty trained anytime soon, but we are having some great success!

We've had several poops and lots of pees on the potty! First can I say I never though I'd be blogging about poops and pees, but I know I'm not the only one who sings about pee-pees on the potty either. I know a lot of people struggle with potty training so maybe what we've been doing will be of help.

We have two pottys: The BABYBJÖRN Potty Chair which we keep downstairs and the Pourty which is upstairs in his bathroom. The Pourty has won multiple awards and you pour the contents through the duct out of the back of the Pourty. Because at this stage Blondie Boy is doing a lot of sitting on the potty the BABYBJÖRN, with it's larger, more comfortable seat is a better fit for purpose, but I can see the benefits of the Pourty and I think it will be invaluable for travelling and taking out and about as it is smaller. It would fit in a suitcase no problem so I imagine it will come with us this summer on vacation.

We keep the BABYBJÖRN Potty in our family room and first thing when Blondie Boy wakes up in the morning we take his nappy off and he sits on the potty. He LOVES to read on the potty. Seriously the kid will read 10 books, 3 times each and because the BABYBJÖRN is "roomy" he doesn't get a sore bum. I haven't asked him if it's comfy, but I assume it is!

Sometimes we get a pee and sometimes we don't. If we do he gets a round of applause and praise and if not, well that's okay.  Anytime his nappy comes off to get changed we sit on the potty for a bit to see if anything happens.  If he signs "poo" to us we will take off his nappy and put him on the potty but most times he tells us after or during rather than before.

The chair itself is easy to clean as the white "pot" part lifts out and you can pour away whatever is in it.  I pour whatever is in it out in to the toilet and then spray it with disinfecting spray and pour that out into the toilet.  Then I wash it out again in my utility room sink and it's good to go again.  I thought it would be super gross, if I'm honest, but honestly it's not.

We've fallen off the cloth nappy wagon, but we are going to bring them back again for potty training as I've read that they can help with potty training.  We recently got some AMAZING Bum Genius 4.0 nappies to try and they are the best cloth nappies I have ever used.

I didn't use to put any stock in brand name cloth nappies, but these are amazing. The Bum Genuis 4.0 is a one-size nappy which means it will fit your baby from newborn to toddler and the sueded inner fabric gently wicks moisture away from your baby's skin.

We fell off the cloth wagon because as Blondie Boy got older he moved about more and we tended to get a lot of leaks or a lot of red marks. The Bum Genius 4.0's super stretchy, gentle leg and back elastic with rolled out casings keeps leaks in and help to keep red marks away. We tried both the snap and Velcro closures and loved both.

I've read that cloth diapered babies potty train younger than those in disposables, but who knows. If you've had experience I'd love to hear your thoughts!

So that's where we are.  I'm still not sure what to do if we are out in public and he signs "poo." He's too little to sit on a proper toilet, but I don't want to set him back by not taking him through. What do you do with your little ones in public?

Transatlantic Blonde was provided these products to review but the opinions are all our own.

Here I Sit Broken Hearted...

I know nothing about potty training. Not surprisingly I don't remember when I did it and my younger sister is only 20 months younger than me so I couldn't tell you what it was like for her either.  All I know is that Blondie Boy is starting to tell us when he's pooped. Yup I'm now that Mom, I'm blogging about poo.  He'll also go and grab his changing mat when he needs a new diaper.

I know that telling us AFTER the fact doesn't mean he's ready to be potty trained, but we do know it means he is aware of what he's doing.  So with that in mind we think we are going to get a potty, put it out and see what happens. So, why am I blogging about it if it hasn't happened? I need y'alls help!


What are your tips and tricks? Are there any pottys or potty accessories you loved? Any you hated? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! We were thinking maybe something like the potty about, but I'm open to any ideas!