The Potty Training of Kaleb

As I mentioned earlier, we have recently been potty training Kaleb, and I want to write a post about the major points because I think it worked well for all of us, and well... some parts are really funny.

So about two months ago we transitioned Kaleb into Pull-ups.  There are so many expert opinions on both sides of the fence with these suckers but I felt they would be better for Kaleb (and me in the middle of a semester of school) to learn a little more slowly rather than cold-turkey.   The first few days of wearing Pull-Ups made it SO obvious that it would have been REALLY rough if we hadn't used them.  He didn't understand how to pee 'on demand' and it took quite a few tries for him to get the hang of it.  Then there was the getting-dressed aspect that I hadn't thought of.  It's a lot of responsibility to ALWAYS be in charge of putting your pants back on. 

The hardest part was BY FAR getting Kaleb to poop in the toilet.  This has been an issue with a lot of kids in my extended family  and it was no different for Kaleb. He just refused to even try to poop in the toilet.  He would read the signs, then hide, then go.  Finally, about two weeks before our scheduled cold-turkey potty training day, we decided to strip Kaleb down if he showed any signs of pooping, force him to sit on the toilet, often for 20 minutes at a time.  HE HATED IT!  He would scream like I was ripping his toenails off and cry and oh, it was awful.  (I have a tastefully filmed video of it below.  Doesn't show anything nasty) 

Finally, after a few failed days of trying to get him to poo in the toilet (he would just wait till the Pull-up went back on during naps), I left him on there for a big, long screaming session (i had given him juice and a Fiber One brownie, so I knew it was just a matter of time). "Nnnnnnoooooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooooo!!! MOMMY!!Mommy!!! MOMMMY!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

a pause...

(sniff) "I did it!! I pooped"

That happened about four more times, before he was calmed to the point of just a lot of loud crying.  Usually, Kaleb would run to the toilet, cry a bit with some quiet "No, No" moans.  Then he would come out... quickly run back... back and forth, back and forth till 30 minutes later, he would allow himself to poop.  About a week after his third birthday, Ammon took a Thursday and Friday off so we could take a road trip to Out of Africa on Thursday (posting later) before the cold-turkey Friday.  Kaleb successfully pooped in a toilet at Out of Africa with just a whole lot of whining, so I was super proud of him.

Finally, that Friday, we kept Kaleb naked for three straight days.  If we went anywhere, he would 'go commando' under his shorts so he still felt a little less secure, a suggestion I got from my friend Melanie.  (thank you!) We gave him lots of powerade and juice to make sure he had lots of opportunities to go.  We gave him an M&M for #1 and two 'big' candies (like rolo's) for #2.  He had one or two accidents, but overall did great, including going to the potty on his own while at nursery that sunday. 

It's been two weeks now, and I am super-impressed with how Kaleb has embraced his new responsibilities.  At times, he still fights us when we ask him to go to the bathroom (maybe cuz he doesn't think he needs to go or maybe just an "I'm busy" type moment), but we only have random accidents here and there.  We still have him wear Pull-ups at night because he is such a heavy sleeper, but even during his last few naps he hasn't peed. He doesn't mind going in public toilets, and I'm proud to announce that he can poop without even shedding a tear.  I think he has realized just how much more like an adult he has become and the phrase "Big Boy" really has so much more meaning!

Like I said, I'm glad for all the good advice I've received through friends and books, and I feel like I was a little inspired with how to cater this big transition for our little boy... or should I say our Big Boy!! 

Kaleb at 3 years old

I'm still in a little bit of shock that I have a three year old.  A little boy that could start preschool in a few months.  He really does make me so proud so often, it's hard to believe that I could ever be angry with him... but he is still such a little boy at heart.  The other day we were discussing an article about "The Top Things You Should Never Say to Your Kid," and one of them was "ACT YOUR AGE!!"  Their reasoning was of course to never pigeon-hole a child into expectations that are higher than they are capable of at that time... When I think of telling Kaleb to act his age it would be telling him to be MORE rowdy, MORE obnoxious, MORE noisy and just overall less of a person than he is.  When I keep that in mind (which isn't often enough), I remember what a great kid he is. 

ANYWAY, Kaleb is now 40 inches tall and 38 pounds.  That's the 90th percentile for the 3-year point which is why EVERYBODY thinks he is at least 4.  He can be quite a handful, but this has been a busy year for him with his new baby sister, learning to deal with all the rules that come with a big-boy-bed (like don't touch the window treatments) and potty training recently (different posting for that).  Thankfully he is just handling it with more tears than tantrums and continues to be a joy to us.

As always I must RAVE about what a helper is with Sasha.  He loves to pick her up and take her places (like out of his room), and she just thinks it's hilarious!

 Kaleb has also taken on the responsibility of being her little tutor.  He likes to teach her things, even if they make no sense at all.  Doesn't this picture just scream "Aye, Sensei!!"

Here he is feeding her... something he is always asking to do!  Doesn't she look HUGE in his lap!?

 Their favorite game is for Kaleb to run around the room, back and forth and Sasha crawls after him.  Sometimes he will hide around corners and surprise her which she just thinks is AWESOME!!  It might be quite a shock for Kaleb when she starts walking, but for now they really are great buddies!!

 Sometimes when Sasha is napping, I can tell Kaleb really misses her.  The other day, he couldn't help but play with this little baby doll.  He set up the blankets for it, and told me, "Mommy, my baby is crawling!!"  Oh, man i love this kid!

And then there are times when Kaleb is just a cute little kid. 

 I love this shot of his ginormous feet!!

Part of the growing pains of boy-hood include getting a few scrapes, like that week he had one on each elbow from two totally different falls.  One of which he barely teared up, the other he cried for an hour.  Go figure!

One of the most entertaining parts of Kaleb's growth continues to be the things he says.  He still has some odd pronunciations for things (right now he mixes up the K and T sound like a Kag on the back of his shirt), like Applepus for Octopus, Hepitopter for helicopter, Armbow for Elbow, Elmo Street for Sesame Street, and Cheepahs for Cheetahs (that's our favorite!!)
We have worked with him to get the LMNOP part of the alphabet song, and his counting continues to get better, although right now it goes from1 to 11, then forteen, eleventeen, forteen... and he just repeats that over and over.  Some of his favorite things to say right now are the classic "I WANT" which we are trying to switch to Please, and of course everything is "Watch This!!"  He's also become obsessed with singing Old McDonald.  Some of my favorite things he has said recently are:

(When told what we will have for dinner) "I can live with that."
(When Sasha was yelling in the car) "Mommy, your daughter is screaming."
(When asked if he put his dinner dishes in the sink) "Um.. not quite"



We've been having Kaleb dress himself in preparation for potty training, and occasionally run into little mishaps (Both legs in one pant leg)

Kaleb has been such a little helper with the dishes lately.  Ammon taught him one night while I was out grocery shopping, and it has become a great little chore ever since.  Sometimes it's fun for us, other times it's just more work, but at least he's learning to do chores. 

 As he's getting older, we are introducing new games to him.  He still only has about a ten minute excitement/attention span, but it's interesting to see what he takes from each game (like Bingo, Chutes and Ladders, and Matching)

 In late April, Kaleb got to go on his first Fathers&Sons outing with all the Teller men.  Since he was the only little boy on the Teller side, he was able to get a TON of attention from everybody.

Uncle Rylan taught him how to ride his unicycle.

Grandpa (Papa) took him "On Walkabout"

Plus he got to sleep in a tent (on a deflating air mattress) and eat dutch oven cobbler... those two pictures didn't download i guess.  He was exhausted through the whole trip but talked about it for weeks!

With summer has come the chance to swim.  Gramma Teller has graciously bought a pool for the grandkids, and he and his cousin Lilly (usually with Tashina supervision) have a GREAT time!

He also had a chance to visit Brimhall Pool once already as well!

One thing we discovered randomly a few months ago is that Kaleb is allergic to fish.  He usually threw up every time he had fish, but we never put two and two together until a tune fish sandwich lunch back in April.  At least now we know.  Ammon has never been a seafood fan, so it doesn't do much to our daily menu. 

Kaleb has learned the fun of pretending.  He can play with his animal and people figuresand do little interactions with them.  He also likes to pretend talk to people that aren't there.  Like the other day he said something random, and I asked him what he meant.  He just said, "I'm talking to gramma.  She's right there." and he poinedt to an empty space in the room.


I love that Kaleb enjoys church and learning about church things.  Here he is all spiffed up and ready for a little gospel-learning!

Ammon and I observed a day in nursery (on his birthday, to take scrapbook pics and to give out birthday cookies), and it was so fun to see him interact with the other kids in such a wholesome environment.  It's also funny to see how much bigger he is than all the other kids (in spite of half of them being older)

We have started doing family home evernings most weeks, and we do a little lesson based on paintings in the gospel art book.  His favorite story by far is Ammon (go figure) and would request it every week.  I like to review the lesson from the week before to see what he remembers, and it still surprises me what he gleans from each one.  Besides Ammon, we have talked about Noah, Moses with the serpent on a stick, the ten lepers and Joseph Smith. 

You know your kid loves the spirit when he asks you to sing primary songs for his bed-time song.  He has heard one of them so much he asked to sing it by himself.  Thankfully we got a good recording of it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrhygW-uiGw