Away for Training: Back Soon

Years ago, if someone mentioned "training", immediately I think nice hotel, unlimited (relatively) good food and not having to go to the office.

How times have changed. Now, mention training and I think "toilet training" - plenty of rags, mops, dettol and spare toddler underwear.

I started Adik on toilet training about a month or two ago, roughly the same age Abang was when I started toilet training him. In the beginning, as expected he would just suddenly pee on the floor/ carpet/ bed/ chair (delete where applicable) without any warning whatsoever. Sometimes preventive measures, i.e. just taking him to the loo and trying to get him to pee, actually backfired because he would feel 'pressured' and get very annoyed.

So I moved on to asking him if he needed to go and if he said "no" then I'd leave it at that. This was the more risky method, obviously, because sometimes his "no" doesn't mean "I don't need to go" but rather "I don't want to go". More rags, mops, dettol and spare toddler underwear.

More recently though, Adik has been more cooperative about going to pee if I notice that he needs to pee (constant vigilance on my part), sometimes up to 3-4 times within an hour! There would still be accidents but fewer of them. Then, last week, I tried letting him go TOTALLY commando - as in just a shirt and nothing else - whenever he was playing in my room. Since the master bathroom door is always open, it makes it easier for him to go pee.

And he would! He'd be nicely playing when suddenly he would stop and run to the shower stall and pee by himself. I definitely have to go in after him, otherwise he will start swishing his pee on the floor with his hands. Eeewww. But never mind, one step at a time.

So far, no accidents in my room, hooray! And he's even managed to do the same when he's playing downstairs. I've decided to leave the safety gate open so that he can do his "play, stop, run, pee" routine downstairs.

I'm happy to report today was a no-diaper day (partly due to not napping) and only one peeing accident. Which, I should add, was when then the boys were supervised by the maid - not me -because I went for a shower. Here's to more diaper- and accident-free days!