Poopoo

Stephen: Sarah! Sarah! You wanna come see my poopoo?

Sarah: No! Nobody wants to see your poopoo!

Stephen: Marlenne! You wanna come see my poopoo?

Marlenne: No, I don't want to go see your poopoo Stephen.

Stephen: Why?

Marlenne: Because it's stinky and yucky! Do you want to see my poopoo?

Stephen: Yes!

Marlenne: Why?

Stephen: To see how pretty!

Stephen In Bathroom

Stephen Peeing By Himself For The First Time

I just turned my back for a minute, and Stephen ran over to the urinal and was done by the time I got over there.

Clean And Dry

Sarah is now "clean and dry" all day almost every day. Now we are trying to get her to stay clean and dry at night. We motivate her by promising her gum (bribing) if she is clean and dry all night.

We are also trying internal motivation:

Papa: Sarah, how will you feel in the morning if you are clean and dry?

Sarah (smiling broadly): Really good!

Papa: Right! You'll be able to say, "I did it! I did it! I did it! Yay!"

Trying to figure out something that will work. Mama is getting tired of washing so many sheets all of the time.

Calzones

Do you know what calzones are? In Spanish (and I am assuming Italian) the word means underpants. Think of that next time you are eating a calzone.

Stephen started wearing "calzones" this week since he has started getting so good about going peepeepoopoo in the bathroom. Sometimes, depending, he wears a diaper over the underpants.

Poopoo

Stephen is now letting us know several times per day when he needs to go to the bathroom, both for peepee and for poopoo. He goes in and sits down on the toilet, either the big one or the little one, and does very visible effort, usually successful. Then we clap and cheer, Yay, Stephen! Good job! Age: one year, seven months. Still using diapers 24 hours, for now.

The One-Second Poo

The other day poor Sarah urgently needed to go to the bathroom. She sat down and in less than one noisy second released a "big mountain" of poo, and was done. "Can you clean me?"

She has not been feeling well and had a little bit of owie in her tummy. (The flu is going around.)

Trip Log

4:30 am Leave Chardon with a car overloaded with Christmas presents
4:35 am Sarah: Silly Christmas tree, it’s outside! (Sees lights on pine tree)
9:19 am leave Ohio, enter Indiana

Almost Thought It Was St. Louis

9:45 am Gas up in Spiceland, IN, birthplace of all of the Spice Girls. Gas $3.11/gal
10:00 am Eating the world’s worst truck stop corn dogs in recorded human history. Stephen rightfully refuses them.
11:00 am Indianapolis, IN

Nothing Coming Out

Sarah: I try but nothing coming out!

I Want Grandma

Sarah wants Grandma to take her to the bathroom, to help her brush her teeth, to read a story to her at night. Not Mama or Papa. Grandma.

Sarah: I want Gdanma do it!

But when Aunt Anne came over, Sarah wanted Aunt Anne to take her.

Papa, to Aunt Anne: She could go by herself, but it's a bonding thing.

Poopoo

(Not to be confused with caca.)

Stephen just now told Mama "poopoo" and when placed on the toilet, did peepee and then poopoo. He was very pleased that we applauded him and asked for Sarah to come over ("Tata" and hand motions). The exertion was clear in his face. At first he did only a little bit of poopoo but then worked until some more came out.

Good job Stephen! Let's see... Sarah was out of diapers at 18 months. He still has a couple months to go, but they say that boys are slower than girls to learn to use the potty in general. We'll see.

Peepee

Stephen indicated that he wanted to be put on the toilet, and when Papa put him on, he did peepee two times.

Stephen and Sarah sometimes get into conflicts about who gets to sit on which toilet; each one wants to be on the bigger one, or the one that the other one is sitting on.

Sarah Bathroom

Stephen Potty

Stephen has been making his effort to go peepeepoopoo in the bathroom. He had me take him and put him on the toilet, where he made visible effort and did some poopoo there. He works hard, there is no question. Still in diapers at all times, though.

Getting Enough Sleep

A good night's sleep makes all the difference! Sarah got up too early the other day and was fussy all day. She also had "peepeepoopoo" accidents all day, which are increasingly rare for her now. She just wasn't happy.

The next day, yesterday, she got her full night's sleep and it made all of the difference. She was glowing all day. But today, she got an extra extra long nap, and it is stacking up to be a little bit fussy afterwards.

Not sure what we are going to do when they get into school and have to get up at 7am instead of 10.

Sarah on Obama

Sarah: Papa, who is Obama?
Papa: (Tries to explain in Sarah's terms).
Sarah, shortly after, talking to self: Obama needs to be nice. Obama needs to obey. Obama needs to go peepeepoopoo.

Developmental Snapshot "Peepeepoopoo"

Sarah and Stephen have both recently reached developmental milestones in regards to "peepeepoopoo".

Stephen for the first time has been asking to be taken to the bathroom so he can use the potty. (He uses the poopoo hand sign of pulling a thumb or finger with the other hand, while making a "thhbbt" farting sound with his mouth.) He has requested a couple of times to be taken, and then sits down and with great effort and concentration does a little bit of "number one" and/or "number two". We, of course, clap and say "Yayyyy!", which he loves. This is a very socially motivated boy.

And Sarah, who has been off of diapers since she was 18 months or so, got up the other night to take herself to the bathroom to go peepeepoopoo. Before this, she would always drag either Mama or Papa (usually Mama) out of blissful slumber to take her. Hopefully this becomes a habit.

Love, Papa

Update, November 3rd:
This morning Stephen asked to be taken to the bathroom again, where he did peepee, and then refused to put on a diaper. He wanted underwear instead. He then kept it "clean and dry" until his next requested trip to the bathroom. Will we soon be leaving diapers behind?