Stars needed

For the last two weeks, he's been lining up his "babies" (his teddy bears and assorted stuffed animals including: Piper, his favourite teddy bear; Teddy, a smaller bear; Sydney, a floppy eared dog; Sam the monkey; Duckie; Grover; Ox, his ugly doll; Naughty Naughty Keifer, another ugly-doll-like thing; Horsie; Doggie; Sophie the giraffe; Tad, a talking frog-thing; Baby, a musical teddy; Dino, a green dinosaur, etc. etc.) and insisting that I change their diapers.

It's a funny little ritual. He will take the babies one at a time and insist that I wipe their "bum-bum" and "change their diaper." I would, of course, play along, and once we get to the end (pardon the pun) of the babies, I will say "now, it's Dexter's turn." But oh no, no. The babies might need to be changed, but no, not Dexter. He will protest, resist and procrastinate until I finally insist (read: forcibly hold down a crying, squirming boy) it's his turn at the change table.

The last few days or so, he would actually stop in the middle of play to rush upstairs to "change babies." We figured it was his way of letting us know that "somebody" had filled their diaper -- in fact, all the babies apparently, except for Dex, of course (wink, wink).

Did someone say potty?

Last night, I just had his dinner ready and as I was rounding him up to strap him to his high chair, off he went to go upstairs to change the babies. I rushed in after him and when we got upstairs, I changed one or two babies. He wasn't really into it and it finally occurred to me to ask him if he wanted to go to the bathroom. Surprise, surprise: He allowed himself to be led to the bathroom and once there, he actually allowed me to remove his diaper and to let him sit on the potty. Wow!

Believe me, this progress on the potty training front was totally thrilling. Quick -- I tried to jog the memory to see what else I should be doing. I read somewhere that I should have some reading material just for sitting on the potty so that he gets positive reinforcement. I scanned the horizontal surfaces within arms reach: not looking good. Here's the paltry choice:

- Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Dropped Threads 2, edited by Carold Shields and Marjorie Anderson
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
- Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
- Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
- Sharp, a Globe and Mail freebie magazine with Ewan McGregor on the cover
- Design Within Reach, a catalogue for mid-century design furniture and accessories

As you can imagine, only the last two had pictures so I reached for those first. The Eames chairs in the Design catalogue only held his interest for half a second so we moved on to Sharp Magazine where (1) he noticed the motorcycle behind Ewan, and (2) ads for Porsche (inside front cover) and Audi (centre spread). We talked about the cars for a bit but then that wore thin and the only other thing I could reach was the David Sedaris book with a cover photo of two guys in hats with their tongues out. That entertained him for the rest of the potty session.

While ooohing and aaahing over the car ads, my little boy had a quiet tinkle. I was so proud of him.

And not only that, later that night, after dinner, he wanted to sit on the potty again for a #2 -- too late, of course (the diaper was already mighty full by the time we removed it) but still, I think we're making progress.

The report from Daddy is that Dex also sat on the potty first thing this morning. I think we are on a roll!

So, things to do today: upgrade the reading material in the bathroom to include toddler-appropriate books, and buy gold stars or stamps to reward Dex every time he sits on the potty. Yaay!