More on The Process
I promise I'm not going to get graphic or turn this journal into paeans to my son's elimination. But this *is* the beginning of the goal all parents seek since they change their first soiled diaper, so bear with me.
I figured yesterday's momentous event was a fluke due to the suspicious timing. Right before it was time to get dressed to go to school, EM Jr claimed he wanted to sit on the potty. I'm a potty encourager (better known as "sap"), so I grabbed a story book and prepared for 5 pointless minutes. Midway through the story, however, I noticed that, amazingly enough, he was whizzing. After the story, I made joyful exclamations over his accomplishment (which caused EM Jr to retreat in confusion). He returned in time to witness the grand flush, but I was still thinking that it was just an accident that happened in the correct place. As the day went on, he got to overhear our bragging phone calls to grandpa & grandma. We also made sure to praise him as he was going to bed. So maybe the positive message sank in.
At any rate, this morning, like normal, EM Jr invaded our room. When I was ready to get up, I told him that I was going to use the big potty, and did he want to use the little potty? Yes. So out came the storybooks (again), and midway through the story, he started looking down, then announced he was going pee. And lo, he did. For that, he was rewarded with training pants and return (dry) trips to the potty. Though it only happened once today, he kept his training pants dry, so that's a small victory.
What comes next? I don't figure he's remotely ready to detect when he needs to go potty, but we can keep up the routine of encouraging him to sit on it at intervals. We'll see what happens.