Sunday, March 09, 2008

Relief, Proud, Big Boy, and FINALLY!!!

What do all those words have in common for a post? Well, I'll tell ya!

Isaac is finally WANTING and CHOOSING to go to the bathroom all on his own initiative! Something has "clicked" in the past few weeks for him and he has decided to go pee when he needs to go. We don't have to keep him on the clock and tell him to go every 2 hours. We potty trained him when he was about 2 years and 3 months old. He could pee in the toilet if we asked him to but he didn't have much interest to go on his own volition. And pooping? Forget it! He would poop in his diaper first thing in the morning or right after waking up from a nap. There wasn't much opportunity for him to even try to go in the toilet but when the moment arose, let's just say there was a lot of cleaning up to do!

I don't know what did it for him but he has started just going. He does get an m&m when he pees in the toilet and goes by himself. He also gets a chocolate goody when he poops on the potty. His code for pooping is to say, "Mom, I have an itch in my bum". I guess that is what the feeling of having to go poop feels like to him. We didn't come up with it. A few weeks ago when all this initiative taking started we kept telling him how proud we were of him. He and I would call daddy at school and celebrate over the phone. Sometimes we'd call grandma or tell anyone on the phone what occurred if they happened to call at the right time. I think the he really likes knowing how absolutely proud of him we are for making such a big step on his own. Today he went poop and asked, "Mom, aren't you soooo proud of me?" with a big, big, big smile on his face. We are all celebrating with him. Now the "itch in my bum" comment is usually followed up with a "Let's go poop!".

I have to say that I am just so relieved at not having to remind him to go and that I can relax about cleaning up any pee or poop accidents. In the past month he has grown up so much--learning his letters (well, he has been working on them for a while), starting to write, toileting himself, riding his tricycle (he can pedal and get anywhere he wants to now). He is such a big boy now and he is enjoying that part of growing up.

He was my baby for so long and now I have seen him make some huge milestones all in the past few months. I often feel guilty that he is the middle child (motivation for having a 4th right there!) but I hope that these memories and feelings he has of feeling celebrated for all his milestones will linger and be foundational for his development as a secure person.

We are all super proud of Isaac and if you want to send any remarks along to Isaac via the blog I will make absolutely sure that he gets them!

8 comments:

Grace H. Lin said...

yay, Isaac!!! =)

Jon Parker said...

Also, it's been cool to see how Ewan wants a share of the "we're so proud of you"-pie. First thing he showed me when he got up this morning was how he can "make my bed all by myself because I can do the [bed]spread." I let him know how proud I am of him. He likes to put on his own shoes now too, and he and I are working on how to zip up his own coat. It's cool. I've talked to him about getting a treat for putting on all his own clothes in the morning, but he's not ready for that yet.

Oh! Also, I am proud of the "sharing in the celebration" ethos we have around the house. When we started with Isaac on this (and we may have even started this with Ewan when we were training him on something), we let Ewan often get an M&M too when Isaac does so that they can celebrate together. The other day when Isaac got a chocolate for going poop, he picked out his treat, and then looked up at me and said, "Can brother have one too?" I told him that we could cut his in half and give half to his brother. Without blinking, he said "Yah!" He'd rather get half a reward than not be able to share in the celebration with his brother. Isn't that great?

Now, if only we could teach Americans to have that attitude about our healthcare system...hmmmm...

Anonymous said...

YEA ISAAC!!! I am so proud of you going poop in the potty all by yourself!!! YEA! You can picture Miriam and Caleb doing a happy dance for you! And yea to Ewan for making his bed--that's pretty cool.

:-)

the Odle clan

The Herd said...

Go Isaac!!! I can't wait til my youngest gets it!

Anonymous said...

You go, Isaac!!!! I am so proud of you...and Ewan too for making his bed. That is awesome!! I remember when your daddy learned to make his bed. That was way cool!!! Love you. Here comes a big kiss XXXXXXX

mamabrown said...

Isaac, Grandma is so very proud of you for going pee-pee and poopy in the potty all by yourself---all of the time!!! Yippie!! Dippy!!! Do!!! You did so Good!!! Isn't it nice not having poop and pee in your pants? You are getting to be such a Big Boy! I can't wait to see you again! I bet you have grown some more...what do you think? Remember that Grandma and Grandpa love you very much. We think it is super duper that you can pee and poop in the potty! Good job, sweetheart. Hugs and kisses from us to you!

Ewan, you are such a great big brother. You do such a good job of helping Isaac celebrate when he goes pee and poopy in the potty! I know Isaac looks up to you and it is very important that he hears good things from you too! Daddy, said you are already making up your bed? Wow! I am so happy that you can do such a big boy chore! Pretty soon you will be doing more big boy things that you can be proud of too. You must be growing up more and more! Grandma and Grandpa love you so much. We think you are a wonderful grandson, a wonderful son, and a wonderful big brother! Hugs and kisses.

pamela said...

yah, isaac! way to go dude!

p.s. de acuerdo on the health care sentiment, jon.

Sharon M said...

Julian says, "Wow Isaac can go poo-poo like me now!" I just hope Isaac doesn't get in the habit of taking ALL his clothes off every time he has to go, like Julian does ;-)