I'm a Big Kid Now!

We started potty training David at the beginning of February. Three months later, we were still struggling with #2. I'll spare you the details, but basically I was tired of cleaning up the accidents and he was very good at outsmarting the system--like waiting until he had a pull-up on at night, or just waiting for several days at a time. It was not fun for either of us. I tried a myriad of rewards, but nothing seemed to work.

Until it got warm and he saw other little children riding bikes.

So I found an image and made a chart--he had to have 10 successful times of using the potty, and he would get a bike. Finally the reward spoke to him, and David was motivated to learn. (Well, at the same time I put him in charge of cleaning up all accidents. I put him in the tub, handed him some detergent, and walked away. I think this motivated him as well as the bike, after 4 or 5 times of cleaning up.)

I hung the chart on the wall facing the toilet, and I had an inkling that we were on our way to success when David sat on the toilet with his chin in his hands and said, "That little boy is having fun on his bike, isn't he, Mom?"

 It turned out to be just the trick we needed!

David feels like such a big boy now--and a big boy bike to show off is a bonus.

A little chilly, but the sunny skies pulled us outdoors on Monday for family night.

 We had such a good time, first with a picnic, then with a bike run, then feeding the ducks.

I really enjoyed watching David ride a bike for the first time--and I learned a few things.

The first is that some kind of Big Wheel or tricycle would have done a lot to prepare him for pedal motion. We'll keep working on the coordination of it all, but I wish we had introduced him to pedaling last summer. Our short driveway and busy street don't lend itself to small children on bikes or trikes, so this is the first summer he's been on his own set of wheels. Next time I'll do things differently.

The other thing I learned is that our David is maturing into a little boy with a lot of determination and patience when he's learning something new. He kept a smile on his face the entire time, and didn't let the whole learning process get him down. We have a long ways to go before he will be able to ride, even with the training wheels attached--but I was really glad to see the glimmer of patience he showed. It's really encouraging to me to think that maybe David is growing into more impulse control, and when he wants something, he can be a very patient little boy while he works towards it.