He's a Big Kid Now!!!!

Last week I took an entire week of vacation to stay at home with Hayden and get him completely potty trained.    My boss affectionately named it my "Crappy Vacation."  There were times during the week where I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration, but I'm happy to report that as of right now we (and by we you all understand I mean Hayden) is four days AND nights ACCIDENT-FREE and wearing big boy underpants now!!!  This is one happy mommy!!

Even though this is mostly Hayden's big accomplishment and I'm proud of him, the truth is I feel like I need a little pat on the back too. It was easily the most challenging thing I've done as a parent so far.  I hear stories of these kids that just wake up one day and decide to be potty trained - my child was not one of them!  I tried every trick under the book, watched potty-training videos, read articles, listened to advice and prayed incessantly that God would either potty-train him or just "take me now!!!"  But I had to wait for it to finally click in his little brain - and I think we're there!

We went through a lot of pull-ups & M&M's (rewards for him, sanity for me) and did a LOT of singing.  Hayden has always responded really well to music, and we sing a lot of songs around our house, so unconventional as it may be - we made up some potty songs to encourage him in his training, and by popular request (Grandma, Jodi & Cara)... I'm sharing them today.

THE POTTY SONG  

(Written by mommy, performed by Hayden, age 3) 

And then because it quickly became apparent that two potty songs are better than one... the "Poop Song" was born.  I decided that if I was really and truly going to be singing about "poop" that I better at least put it to a classical tune... we are nothing if not classy around here.

THE POOP SONG

(Also written by Mommy and performed by Hayden)

I have a feeling these songs will make a comeback in about two years when it's time to potty train Elijah. 

Dear God,

Please make the next two years go by at a snail's pace.

Or make Elijah a superhero at potty training.

Because I don't know if I can do this again.

Thank You!