The Gossman Family: 11 Days and I'm Calling It Done

One of our major goals (okay maybe just mine) for the summer was to get Gannon potty trained. We had him stand and potty a few times before bath, but nothing consistent and when I woke up on Monday July 11th I just felt in the mood. In the mood for potty training...really! I knew we would have two week of being in town with swim lessons and all so I thought that would be perfect. And it has been! The way we potty train at our house is a little confining, but hey after two kids I'm hear to say as crazy as it make the family to stay cooped up it totally works!

Day 1 - pooping was NO PROBLEM! He mastered this by day 2. I know backwards right!?! Because I literally woke up and was in the mood to do this I wasn't prepared with prizes so after dinner we loaded up and ran to Target, underwear on. I knew we were in for an accident, but that was okay, we weren't wearing a diaper. He did have an accident, but we cleaned it and him up and went on our way.

Peeping for the first couple of days in my opinion is a matter of them learning the sensation of the pee coming and learning to control it to get to the potty. Our potty as starts off in the living room so they don't have to go very far. He did pretty good at this part too, but of course we had a few accidents and many hours sitting on the potty knowing it's coming, but he just couldn't get it out!

Day 4 we had a doctors appointment so we did do a pull up, which I'm HUGELY not a fan of, but with only 3 1/2 days under our belt I knew we couldn't get around it. At the doctor Gannon said that his poop was coming so we went to the bathroom. Not a fan of the huge toilet he couldn't relax and did poop once back in the exam room.

Day 5 he did great during the day, but we had already planned to go to the fair so again he put a pull up on.

Day 6 we were back on track for undies all day and he was definitely doing great.

Sunday (Day 7) we went over to Grandma & Papa's for dinner and with big boy underwear and potty in tow he again did great. BBQ in the backyard was hilarious with a potty cheer for the entire crowd right in the middle of dinner. It's normal to have a potty chair on the patio right? Hey, whatever works.

By Day 9 in the late afternoon he had pooped so I thought I would get the boys out of the house and to the gym to run around. I knew he wouldn't poop, but wasn't sure about pee so I put a pull up on again just to be safe. As soon as we go to the kids club Gannon said he had to potty so we tried. Nothing came out, but he discovered that they have a child size toilet in the bathroom. About 15 minutes into my workout they paged me to the kids club. Oh great! I walked in and they said, "your son is in the bathroom". I went to the bathroom to find Gannon stripped of his pants and pull up pointing in the toilet, "look Mom I did it". And that he had, potty'd like a big boy without any help at all! YEAH SUCCESS.

Day 10 at swim lessons he kicked me through the entire lesson and as soon as we got out of the pool he said he needed to go potty and started to do his potty dance. He totally has a potty dance! Off to the potty we went and of course he wouldn't go. I grabbed our bags and with both boys ran back to the bathroom. Gannon again said he needed to potty, up on the big toilet he went. This time he did go lots of potty! This was also our first day of napping in underwear.

He wakes up from night sleeping and nap time dry so we'll go about a couple weeks before completely pulling the diaper on night time just to be sure.

I know we will have an accident here and there, it's just part of it, but there definitely no diapers go back on this kid!

Prizes - a bucket full of car. Each time he peeped or pooped he got to pick a prize. It was hilarious to watch Garrett try to persuade him into picking one he really wanted to play with. Gannon has a mind of his own and NEVER took the suggestion! I started with 10 and had to restock on Monday with 10 more day 10 and they were all go. Now he just is told he is a big boy!

Family cheering and jumping up and down was a huge help for Gannon's positive reinforcement. If our neighbors could hear Mommy, Daddy, Garrett and Gannon screaming and clapping I apologize! We were excited! When we tell Gannon he's a big boy his response is, "Just like Garrett"