Here's Parker, sitting on the potty Sunday after church. Here is his twin, Penelope, who thinks he's hilarious for brushing his teeth while they both wears panties (or shortys--we had to think of the boy equivalent in this house, and underwear was just not working for us) while showing us their (and my) new pasttime.
I have to say that I am sooo in love with the twins right now. I know most people would cringe at the thought of potty training one kid, not to mention 2 at the same time, but I've decided to go for it, and do them both together. Since Parker is obviously behind Penelope in most, if not all, development milestones, I had received alot of advice to concentrate on her first, then get to him later.
BUT the motivation is this: school starts in a few months' time. It's the french law that children starting "Petite Section" (3 year old preschool) are "propre", or potty trained. I suddenly realized since I am no longer ONLY fixated on "fixing the poor meningitis boy" Parker, that I can actually do this. And I've got only 3 1/2 months to do it. School starts the beginning of September, so I'd better get to work.
We've had a few VERY lame attempts to train OP, but they were always thwarted by 1-a real toilet (I just didn't want to do that little potty thing again this time--its so gross!), 2-our trip to Peru awhile back, and 3-a bad case of the gastro (the french term for the stomach flu) the whole house had while my mom & sister were watching the kids. (Poor, poor them!)
SO, when I got back with John, she told me in her cute little bossy toddler very-matter-of-fact-voice, "I don't want panties. I want diapers." How could I say "No"to her? She's a pretty smart cookie. And I trust her judgment (Why? do I trust my 2 year old's judgment?!), and I was frankly not all that into it. I think I need to be more present. I mean, physically around to do this. Not running to and fro to this meeting and that, and not another appointment or whatever.
So I decided it was worth blowing the budget for those pink and blue matching potty chairs I spent 4E50 each on at Monoprix. Then, I spent way more than that for some fabulous bribe stickers for each of them (Penelope picked hers out--fancy, old fashioned princesses and carriages--we're still pretty hung up on Princess Kate at our house--, and Parker got some adorable far-out cars with little guys in them for his sticker bribe). THESE they get when they even SIT on the potty at first, and then I BOUGHT THE OBLIGATORY lots and lots and lots of ice cream.
(BTW, this is how I potty trained my other kids---they get a sticker on their potty chart, and an ice cream every single time they "go"on the potty. I don't know any other way---do you!?!?!)
So why am I so happy?
I'll tell you:
There was a very real time when we weren't sure we would still have a son who would reach potty training age...
Then, when that son lived, we weren't sure he would ever have the consciousness to actually be potty trained, or even want to be....
And then, even if we had that hope, we certainly never thought he'd be doing it at the same time as his twin sister. I haven't held her back, I promise. She has resisted, and I haven't persisted with her...
They encourage each other and think it's really fun to sit on the pottys at the same time...
It's ridiculous and adorable and scary to see them both on their pottys, grinning from ear-to-ear when you walk into the bathroom...
They sometimes push each other off of their pottys...
They always laugh and giggle, and there are often many more echos and shrieks of joy through the house when one or both of them run around with the pottys on their heads...
Penelope says, 'Yee-haw!"when she puts her pink potty on her head...
Parker laughs his deep, deep, belly laugh...
And we start all over again. And again, and again :)
I love it!
