Last night, he indicated to Mike that he had to go POOP. (Poop, to Sydney, means potty, poop or just gas.) Mike asked him "Do you want to use your potty chair?" Excitedly, Sydney ran as fast as he could towards the kitchen.
They tried, but nothing magically appeared inside the potty chair. Sydney, however, did NOT want to give up. He kept signing "his own little version of sign language - POOP" and indicated that he did NOT want to quit yet.
I indicated to Mike that I have been sitting on the floor by him and that we have been reading books - including his book about going potty and being a big boy. So, Mike said "We can do that!" and sat on the kitchen floor, leaned up against the tall cabinet. Soon, Sydney sat his naked little butt next to Daddy and looked over at Daddy with admiration.
Eventually, Daddy convinced Sydney that we'll try again another time and that it was time to shower off the chlorine, put on a diaper and jammies and brush his teeth.
Tonight, as I was getting Sydney ready for bed, he became angry when I went to put on a new diaper. He started signing POOP and grabbing at his damp diaper. "Do you want your diaper back on?" I questioned. (His head violently shook NO!) "Do you want to go on your potty chair?" (Our little streaker ran as fast as he could to the kitchen, as if he thought I would never ask.)
We sat in the tiny bathroom for a minute or two. No luck. We read books. Then, Sydney hopped up and ran to the living room to gather more books. When he came back, he sat on the floor by the tall cabinet - exactly where he and Daddy sat last night. I moved his potty chair there. He hopped up to get his one of his other books from the tiny bathroom, but in his excitement (and the fact that he was overdue to go to bed) he smacked into the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen, leaving a goose-egg on his forehead almost instantly. Crying, he ran to me - to give ME a hug and have me kiss it for him. (He consoles US when HE becomes upset; too cute!) Then, we looked at it in the bathroom mirror. I thought that the goose-egg would be reason enough to go put a diaper on, but he had A FIT that I suggested such nonsense and wanted to sit some more.
Sydney continued to want to sit on the potty chair, hopping up often to look inside. I kept trying to convince him that a diaper was in order, but he kept signing POOP and pointing to the potty chair. He had little red marks on his butt because he kept reaching back and poking at his little cheeks, but INSISTED that he needed to go in the potty chair.
Desperately, he wants to be a big boy! After 25 minutes, I convinced him that we would try again another time and that it was time to go put on his diaper and jammies so that we could go brush his teeth.
Once he finally SEES potty or poop in the potty chair, I think he will start to appreciate the process more - and perhaps, will stop trying to take the bowl out of the potty chair then, too. (That is probably wishful thinking on my part.) Mike thinks that once he figures out his muscle control, that things will go easier too. It's all part of the learning curve...
