Potty training aftermath

This is part two in a series about potty training. To start from the beginning, go to potty training.

Two weeks have passed since we launched Graham’s potty training program. The first three days were horrific, but we’ve settled into a routine everyone can live with. Here are four discoveries we made along the way.

The first three days are hell. By the end of day three, I was ready to give up. Hands raw and cracking from contact with baby wipes, lip curled in a permanent look of disgust, and eyes blurring from vigilance, the first three days took a toll on my body. In the suffering, I contemplated the loss of three days and the possibility of starting over from scratch, which only added to the burden.

There are numerous accomplishments. Thanks to the Little One’s program I knew we’d have more than one hurdle to overcome, but I didn’t comprehend how many steps it would take. There are way more overlapping steps involved in using the restroom. Here’s an incomplete list of Graham’s accomplishments in no particular order:

Nothing is safe. The floors will be doused, the furniture will be soaked, and any item below or near Graham is in the target range. With great effort, we protected a few large items, but that didn’t save my office chair or the light jacket I’d draped over it.

Victory is sweet. A week after we’d descended into potty training, Graham and I ventured to our favorite coffee shop. We ordered our usual spread - coffee for me, water for Graham, apple fritters to share - and had our usual rough-housing session on the shop’s black leather couch. Over an hour in, I asked Graham if he needed to use the potty. He affirmed, and we made our first attempt at a public restroom. Standing boldly on the toilet edge, Graham performed a 10-point ‘landing’. What pride I felt that our little boy, in a week, had achieved so much! We ate Amie’s apple fritter in celebration.