BYE BYE, DIAPERS!

Three weeks ago, my toddler all of a sudden decided he wanted to sit on the potty and use it. Just like that. Out of the blue. I didn't see that coming. I wasn't ready for it but it was apparent that my son was.

The first time we tried him on the potty just to introduce it and let him have a feel of using it was when he was around a year-and-a-half old. He went a couple of times but after that he didn't want to anymore. The idea of not going in his diaper repulsed him so that at one point he wouldn't even pee while bathing because he wasn't wearing diapers. We didn't push it any further that time since we thought it was pretty early to potty train him anyway. So we hid the small potty away for a time and it sat somewhere in the bathroom collecting dust.

Second attempt was when he was about 2. A friend gave me children books about potty training and that kinda got him interested. He would sit and sit and sit and sit and sit while Mommy would read and read and read and read, but that was just pretty much about it. No going in the potty. He was getting to be really good with words by that time and so the songs his potty sings stuck on him that he could actually sing them. Our favorite potty song was the one by Little Baby Bum:

"I like to sit down on the potty. It's so much fun! 
Sometimes I have an accident but that's okay 'cause
Every day I try again
I pee/poo in the potty and wash my hands
I'm growing up and getting tall
I don't need my diapers anymore."

Despite him knowing those potty songs by heart and me having read to him potty books countless times already, he despised going in his potty. He would sit on it every now and then, just to sit, but when it was really time for him to use it, he would throw a fit whenever I offered it. He knew when he's going but he hated sitting on the potty to do his business. One time I thought he was actually doing well because he peed into it a few times with only a couple of accidents but then the following day, he again rejected the potty. It was putting stress on both of us, so I gave the potty a rest, and let it collect more dust.

Then, three weeks ago happened. No fuss. No resistance. Little to no accident at all during awake. I was impressed. I was floored. I was taken by surprise. Third day into it, he was fully potty trained during daytime. Sometime around the first week, he woke up around 3:00 in the morning to go potty. I couldn't believe it. Second week into it, he was fully potty trained, day and night. A couple of times he woke up in the morning with "wet" pull-ups but it was because he had drank a cup of milk or so right before he went to bed.

I didn't expect he'd be potty trained so fast. Even when in the tub bathing or swimming in the pool, he tells us when he needs to pee. We went on a trip last week and we were driving on the interstate when 2.5 miles away the next exit, he felt the urge. We told him to hold it until we could exit. He grunted, "going, going" several times, and twitched positions, shifted and stretched his legs with toes pointing forward, while we scurried to exit. I could tell he really was trying his best to hold it and on the verge of it, but he still was ABLE to hold it! We exited, found a gas station, pulled his pants down, and as soon as we sat him down the potty, he relieved himself. He is really very good in holding his pee/poo that he always makes it to the potty with no leaks whatsoever. Totally impressive!

I am so proud of my son for having achieved this milestone. I was talking to my sister about this and she congratulated me pointing that potty training is one of the big challenges for parents. I think readiness is really the key and commitment on the caregiver's part. It helped that I was constantly reminding my son about the need to say bye to his diapers and learning to use the potty as he is not a baby anymore, but it was my son's readiness that made potty training a breeze for us. I give my son all the credits for a very successful potting training. Kudos, my big boy! ;)

Geez. My son is two-and-a-half. He is potty trained. He is weaned off his binky. He feeds himself. He can flush the toilet by himself. He can wash his hands by himself. In fact, he even says, "Do it yourself (myself)." This is happening too fast. Too overwhelming for me. It's a sinking feeling. I can't seem to wrap my head around it. In a click, my son was suddenly ready, and I wasn't. I'm still not. I don't think I will ever be ready.

Comfy in his big boy boxer briefs.

Phone in hand. Chilling on the big bed. Tank tops. Boxer briefs.
Makes me feel I already have a teenager.

BYE BYE, BINKY!

The first time I tried to wean my 2.5-year-old son off his binkies was I think when he was around 20 months or so. His binkies brought him certain calm that even us, his parents, apparently could not provide. When I tried to keep him from having his binkies, he obviously got so stressed out, that he literally cried for an hour. It happened twice, and I saw how miserable he really was without his binkies. I felt guilty for subjecting him to such torture. He just wasn't ready yet, and I felt so bad for not being sensitive enough towards my son. After all, it was me who knows him best, and yet I gave in to what others dictated. My heart broke for him, and so after two failed attempts, I let him have his binkies again.

Last night, he misplaced his favorite binky just before going to bed. All lights out and a little over past 12 midnight, we tried to look for it but we couldn't find it. When I didn't bother looking harder for the missing binky or handing him his extra binkies, I thought I would just test the waters. I told him that it was probably time for him to say goodbye to his binky. He didn't object when I said that, mostly because he was still so hyped up, blabbering incessantly, singing and talking in whispers to himself, playing with a toy train in one hand. He was still playing on his bed when I dozed off and I didn't really notice what time he went to sleep.

At around 3:00 a.m., I woke up to my son's small sobs. He was looking for a binky. I ignored him at first and waited. When his sobs started getting louder, I comforted him with an "It's okay," and I maintained that we still couldn't find his binky. He continued to cry. He then told me he needs to use the potty, so I took him to the bathroom and helped him. When we got back to his room, I laid him down beside me on our bed, and I told him that he's a big boy now and he should do his best to try to sleep without his binky. I gave him the reassurance that he can do it, but I was ready to give him a binky should I see him stressing over it just as before. I didn't want him to go sleepless over it.  My son, however, slept through the night. He woke up quite earlier than his usual though, but I made sure to hide away all his binkies before he woke up.

At the library this morning, when he was getting anxious during story time, he kept on searching for his binkies in his baby bag, but he didn't throw a fit when he didn't find one. When we had our afternoon nap, he fell asleep on his bed with, again, a toy train, albeit a different one, in his hand. No binky in sight, and he napped perfectly fine without it. My husband could not believe when I told him that my son has weaned off from his binkies. The final test was bedtime this evening. Not a tiny craving for binky, and he fell asleep peacefully without one, and holding a wooden helicopter toy in his hand.

I know my son was very much attached to his binkies, and it makes me feel so proud that he finally has let go of them. As his mother, I am sure it took him courage and bravery to overcome his anxiety without a binky. I'm so happy that my son is learning, and growing, and achieving milestones like this, but at the same time, it makes me realize that my son is indeed GROWING, and there's no stopping him from it. Every milestone he meets means a step closer to independence and a step farther away from me. Moments like this remind me that I could only hold my son so much for a time. Moments like this tell me that I'm going to muster all the courage and bravery I could gather to overcome the anxiety that one day I will see my son independent in all ways, and I become obsolete just like his binkies.

Taken on Aug 28, 2015 in Club Med Sandpiper Bay, FL
Four days ago, my son was still inseparable from his binkies. He at least needed two - one to put in his mouth and the other to press/rub/brush on his eyelids, nose, cheeks and all over his face. We called the one he put in his mouth as "chup chup" and the other one "duk duk". When I would ask him to surrender his binkies to me when he didn't need them, he would bargain with me and plea, "[I] can have one. Just one." Now I only have pictures to look back when my son still had his binkies :')