I really tried to finish enough blog posts to cover an absence of more than a week. Not quite succeeding, at least I only missed one. Yesterday we got home from Alaska and seeing family. It's a trip we make once a year if possible. While a long way to travel it's such an awesome place once getting there. This was the first time we stayed at their new house too, which was a great perk. A post about Homer will be upcoming, but this isn't it. Today is all about the window into our future we got up there.
Now that Jack has turned two, I know I need to start taking potty training seriously. Since he's our first kid and this is uncharted territory, I've never been the most confident about how to get from point A (where we are now, entirely reliant on diapers) to point B (where we don't use them at all). Communication is definitely a big part of accomplishing this and with his increased talking and understanding we can start taking action. Lately I've been asking him to let me know before doing his business. So far he only tells me afterward, which is something I guess. He also likes to sit on the toilet but doesn't do anything there.
We keep hearing that letting a kid run around naked for a few days basically makes them aware of how things work and can provide a great leap forward. You need to be willing to clean up messes of course. My wife's been saying she'll try this when I'm gone for a weekend (about a month from now) and I'm curious if that'll happen and how effective it'll be. I often like things to be a quick and easy process of learning something and it's done. I'll have to keep reminding myself this won't be like that.
As for the realization from our trip? The in-laws have three kids from two to six, all older than Jack, and all use the toilet. Sometimes their youngest gets a diaper at night and that's it. With this I was impressed. It, however, wasn't the most motivating to see what having potty trained children actually looks like in reality. Nearly every time we went into a bathroom there was something that needing flushing waiting for us. Kids don't have concerns with privacy so the door was always open when they were in there. If the tp was out in one bathroom, that meant a kid would walk naked to another to fetch some. And there's so much talk about it all, whether or not they need to go, successes and failures, clean-up and more.
Now none of this is bad. We just got to see what our future holds and for that I need to be thankful. I had thought my life currently revolved too much around poop since I care for a toddler and a dog. That's clearly something that's only going to increase with time and kids that go through the process.
So, at least for a moment, the question isn't whether or not Jack is ready. Am I?
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