Colorful Voices Are The Best

Potty training The Boy is coming along rather, um, well, okay it's not really. But we're trying, so that has to count for something. He's had a few wins and we're grateful for those, but he's had a lot more losses. I won't be discouraged though, because every potty training newbie starts this way.

I took the kids to Burger King for lunch the other day and was brave (or stupid) enough to take Micah in underpants. He did very well while we were there and stayed dry the whole time. We even stayed long enough to have dessert, so it isn't like we rushed out of there in an effort to keep him from having an accident all over the restaurant. But one's luck can't hold out indefinitely so I thought it might behoove me to try to get him to go potty before we loaded into the van. Everything around here is rural, and Burger King is on the most rural end of town - adjacent to a farmer's hay field - so I figured just opening van doors to shield him from the public would be sufficient. Not that The Nudist would mind, but we need to protect the other kids from embarrassment, you know. Micah didn't have to go, but he did try and that was good.

On the way home we stopped at the farmer's market to buy strawberries and lettuce. As we were getting in the van to come home Micah grabbed the front of his pants and gave me a knowing look. Bingo! He needs to go potty! By all means, drop your drawers and go. It was just us there and the Mennonite family were all inside the shed, so nobody saw us

Only he didn't have to go. He was just taught a few minutes before at Burger King that if you're wearing underpants, you have to drop your pants and grab yourself before you can get into the van. Oh, the joys.

And then I had the revelation that he can't tell me when he has to go potty. Taking him into public will be difficult to say the least. At home he's independent enough to just go when he needs to (someday...) but what if we're driving? We've all had that moment when we're on the toll road and the newly trained toddler suddenly has to pee Right. Now. and you're forced to make him hold it until there's a pulloff, praying all the while that there won't be a puddle in the carseat in the meantime. Or maybe that's just our family?

But anyhoo... Micah can't just tell us that he needs to go potty, so Becky suggested that we get an RV just for the purpose of potty training Micah. Yeh, we would be That Family that travels to the grocery store in an RV just to allow their child the independence of going potty when he needs to without having to inform us of the need beforehand.

I thought of an even more practical route: The Green Voice. I'll have to program the front page to say "I have to go potty" to save us all some headaches. Go, Prentke-Romich, making potty training that much easier for nonverbal kids.