Our First Outing

We had a rough night so we decided to let the boys sleep in and not go to church. And it ended up being a wonderfully relaxing family day.

The first few hours, I could tell that Ben had to go poop, but determined to stick with the plan, I did not force anything. At around 11am, his potty dance became more frequent and urgent. Still, I remained calm and encouraging, telling him that he didn't have to go poopy if he didn't want to. Finally, Ben grabbed my hand and made a mad dash for the bathroom, very pleased to produce a very fine specimen in his potty. "I've never been so happy to see a poop," Andy said.

He did it.

I knew he had more, but grateful for at least some progress, we went nuts with praise. A few minutes later, he went more in his underwear, but I dumped it into the potty as I took off his underwear and he was pleased with that. So at least it's moving in the right direction!

The rest of the afternoon, I had my boys back. Ben was himself again. Happy, playful and running around with Jack and his daddy. It was so fulfilling. It's been a long few days as he decided what he was going to do, so even though I know he's still holding out on us, he's headed in the right direction! Meanwhile, Jack will go whenever he can so he can get a "present." Yeah. I hadn't meant for those to be for every poop, but as long as they're buying, I'll keep selling it!

Still, we were a little worried about tonight. We were going to a friend's house for the superbowl and would need to take the boys out of the house in underwear. For the first time in a week. Grateful that Ben had begun to relieve himself, we felt a little more confident than we would have last night, but we still weren't sure.

We woke them up from their nap and changed their clothes. But neither of them wanted to use the potty. Alllllrighty then. No pressure, Mom. No pressure. The whole 20-minute drive, we were reminding them to tell us if they had to go potty. (Andy had put one of our potties in the trunk, just in case they weren't willing to use our friend's son's potty!) "Mommy, my underwear dry," they kept telling me, as if encouraging me to lay off. We were at the party for about an hour before Ben said he had to go. Andy dashed to the car to get the potty and both boys followed him to the bathroom, successfully peeing in their Big Boy Potties.

They did it.

We left without any incident, even though I could tell that Ben had to go poopy a few minutes before we left. But he didn't want to go there and didn't want to go when we got home. Even still, I am very pleased with how well they're doing. Not even a full week and we ventured out WITHOUT diapers!

The strangest thing was seeing how small their little booties were without diapers :) I'll be honest. They didn't get that from me.