Adventures in underpants

A big milestone is coming up in the Imperfect household.

For a few months now we’ve had a potty in the bathroom. We’d been asking the toddler occasionally if he’d like to try sitting on it, usually as we were running the bath. At first there was a lot of refusal, “No, I have to get bigger”. We didn’t push it, kept asking just occasionally, and I tried not to worry about it. It’ll happen when he’s ready, they said.

I was worried because with a late August birthday, my son will start nursery within a fortnight of turning three. I want it to be as stress-free as possible for him, so I was hoping to have potty training well out of the way before his birthday.

In recent weeks he’s been saying yes to the potty more, at other times of day too. We had a few successes and now have about 20 stickers on the potty chart. We’ve even had a couple of occasions this week where he’s asked me to use the potty, and then used it successfully (do you like my subtle phrasing for “actually did a poo in the thing”?) This week I asked, did he think he was big enough to try wearing pants?

“Yep.”

He says he’ll be able to tell me when he needs to go, and we’ll get the potty. We’re starting on Sunday when Chris and I will both be around. I think probably Monday and Tuesday we won’t go far from home, until we see how things go. I’m under no illusions: I’ve stocked up on pants and I’m expecting to do even more laundry than usual for a couple of weeks at least (and probably longer…).

I do feel quite emotional about this big step. My little boy is growing up even more. Washing his brand new pants ready for Sunday, I was transported back to the time before he was here, when he was curled up in my belly and I was busy preparing for his arrival, tiny baby vests and sleepsuits lined up on the washing line. Things look a little bit different now as we prepare for the next step.

Chris said tonight that seeing all the little pants, he felt more like a parent of a little boy, a little person, than of a baby. Hopefully we’ll still be feeling as romantic about it after cleaning up the 10th puddle.