BeAGoodMom is going to my sister’s wedding shower today. It is a few hours a way so her and Geetle will be gone all day. Pookie and I are taking another cold turkey shot at potty training.

I know for a fact that he hasn’t peed since we changed his diaper after waking up. It is now 11:40am and he must be about to burst.

I did make a fatal flaw that would have made this whole thing so much easier. Besides the milk that he had for breakfast, he hasn’t had anything to drink. Remember folks, good potty training begins with a full bladder.

We just drank two glasses of milk and the dancing seems to be getting a little more urgent.

While ordering my first Pizza Hut pizza online, I realized that I might have a problem now with the recent influx of milk and the impending doorbell ring in the next 20 minutes. There is probably a good chance that there will be a really good sized puddle on the floor when return from answering the door.

For the record, the online order thing with Pizza Hut is great. You should give it a shot.

Damn, they are quick. I ordered the pizza at 11:25 and the pizza just arrived at 11:44am; 12 minutes before expected. There must not be any good sports on today.

We still have a dry floor and a really good chance of getting this next pee in the potty. Keep you fingers crossed. Sorry for the lack of proofreading, I’ve got other things I’m paying attention to.

12:35 Update: In the last 50 minutes, we ate pizza, peed in the potty, and ate the congratulatory M&Ms. I had to stand him in front of the potty, but he didn’t resist at all. Now I’m going for a second one today. I think that would be a record. What is our dress code for potty training days? T-shirt. Socks. That’s it. Pookie hates being without pants but I think that is as much of a being afraid of peeing without a pull-up on as it also plays into Pookie’s hatred of all things incomplete. You can’t get him to walk away from an unfinished puzzle or book. I think he hates being half dressed for the same reason. I’ve told him it is for a good cause today, though.

1:35 Update: This is kind of a big one. Pookie started looking antsy again. I asked if he needed to go to the potty. He got up and started running to the bathroom like he does when we ask him to change his pull-up. I yelled for him to come back and use the little portable urinal that we are using for potty training. He rushed over, I helped aim and he started peeing immediately. I probably would have been a better dad if I would have followed him into the bathroom where he was headed, but he caught me off guard. More dancing, more high fiving, more fist pumping, more M&Ms. Looks like we’ll have to try for three. There has been an update on the dress code. Pookie was fidgeting with his t-shirt so much that it was going to stretch it out and ruin it, so we removed it. He had already removed his socks. That’s leaves us completely prepared for anything, I guess.

Here’s another note. My goal today is to get Pookie to realize that the potty is a perfectly fine place to pee. I personally think that he can tell when it is going to happen to some extent. I just don’t think he has made the connection that when he feels that pressure that he should head to the bathroom. After 4 1/2 years, peeing in the diaper/pull-up has become the routine. Changing a routine for Pookie is a little trickier than with most kids.

Here’s another note. If your kid is a once a day pooper and he wakes up with a poopy diaper, take advantage of that in your potty training. That’s probably a pretty good day to let them run around naked. I’d still keep them off of the furniture, though, just in case.

2:15 Update: #3. This time I asked him if he needed to go and he started toward the bathroom. He stopped because we were just starting a Cat in the Hat video. I informed him that he could use are portable urinal that seems to follow us from room to room. He rushed right over and peed. I finally got a hold of BeAGoodMom to talk about all of this and she said she might think about keeping him home from school tomorrow to see if we can really go somewhere with all of this. I’m still hoping I can get him to run into the potty and use the real potty at some point. I just gave him another big glass of water so we should have another attempt in the next 30-60 minutes.

2:35 Update: This is getting ridiculous. He’s watching the Cat in the Hat which is one of his absolute favorite cartoons. He physically cannot sit during it and jumps virtually nonstop. He looked distracted. I said, “Do you need to go potty?” He took a couple steps toward the urinal. Stood there about 5-10 seconds and then started to pee. I better lay off the liquids a little bit since it was only 20 minutes between pees.

3:00 Update: Pookie started to pee on the cushion he’s sitting on while watching Elmo. About a dime sized amount escaped. He noticed and completely stopped the flow for several seconds while I got him to the nearby urinal. Once there, he restarted the flow.

4:15 Update: Another tiny dime spot of pee that he noticed and then stopped. He is now watching Curious George which is insanely popular and nearly impossible to break away from. He moved to the urinal just fine but was so focused on the show that he didn’t start up again. I eventually had to take his hand and make him touch himself and tell him that he was in front of the potty and it was okay to pee there. So he did.

5:45 Update: The fluid must be running out; it’s taking quite a while between updates now. But this is a big one. We were in our library. I was practicing some doodling and Pookie was playing with an alphabet puzzle. The little urinal was in the room with us. He stood up from the puzzle, walked over to the urinal and peed. Entirely unprompted. Entirely unassisted. Yeah!

7:35 Update: Let’s add one more entirely self-guided trip to the potty. He bounced around very distractedly for about a half hour this time.  He even told me several times, “I want to go to the potty and get an M&M,” to which I replied, “Okay,” and then he would yell at me.  I think he has to poop and is just trying to hold that in.

7:45 Update: I was right.  He had to poop.  I just got to explain that you don’t get M&Ms for pooping on the floor.