As the youngest of four children, Emmett has always thought that he can do everything and anything his older siblings can do. Ever since he was about 1.5 years old, Emmett has wanted to just be a part of the "group" and to keep up with his older brother and sisters. Although I have known this about Emmett's personality for quite some time now, it never dawned on me that this mentality would also apply to potty training. Since Emmett is a boy, I naturally assumed that he would be like his older brother and be forced into potty training kicking and screaming some time after his third birthday. So it came as a total surprise when he sat down on the potty chair (that I have kept in our powder bathroom for years) back in April and went #1 with zero encouragement from any of us. Since he was barely 2 and 1/3 years old, I was totally blown away by this! However, since Lia and I were leaving on our big trip to NYC and DC a few days later, I knew that there was no way that I would start potting training him at that time. So, I told myself that I would attempt to potty train him some time after I returned home. After getting back from this trip, I still had almost two months left of homeschooling before summer started and I was just too exhausted, stressed out, and overwhelmed to take on this task. And once school got out, our busy summer full of activities, day trips, and vacations started which is not the ideal time to potty train either. So although Emmett would continue to go pee pee in the toilet whenever he felt like it or whenever I mentioned it (which usually was once or twice a week), I told myself that I didn't need to start training him until after summer ended.
After the children went back to school on September 2nd, Ron decided to take the three older kids camping a few days later for one night over Labor Day weekend. While they were all gone, I decided that this would be a good time to start potty training Emmett since it was just the two of us. After having a large accident with #1 one time and #2 another time, I threw in the towel. I was still just too exhausted from our very busy summer to deal with constantly cleaning up messes. I told myself that we would revisit this all again in a few weeks. Although I still was not really ready to face it again, Emmett and I came home last Monday after he had spent the morning at a friend's house while I was at a physical therapy appointment for my back. After we got home, Emmett started complaining about wearing his very wet diaper (which he has done several times over the past few weeks). Before I had the chance to change it, Emmett took off his pants and his wet diaper and asked to put on his underwear. I just couldn't believe it! He was so tired of waiting for me to make this all happen that he decided to do it himself--at 2.5 years old! After realizing that there was no turning back, I quickly put on a pair of his underwear that I had bought last Spring and decided to commit myself to making this happen. And I am happy to report a week later that Emmett (and me) are still going strong. He has gone pee pee in the potty several times a day every day since then and has only had a few, little accidents. In addition, he has woken up from his nap every day and even most mornings totally dry! Although Emmett hasn't begun to master going #2 in the toilet, I have learned to not worry as this has always been a separate process for all of my older children. So, with #2 set aside, I am so proud of Emmett for being the one to make this happen and for making his first week of potty training a success! Good job, Emmy Bems!
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