One of the hardest parts of having more than one child is that you are constantly comparing the developmental milestones of one to the other. Now, I know you are not supposed to do this. And, I know that every child is different and that girls tend to mature faster than boys. But, all that being said I cannot help but think back to Madeleine's timeline for walking, talking and going to the bathroom and think of Micah in comparison. The funny thing is Micah keeps trying to show me that he does things when he is ready to do them, and he usually does them really well at that point. For example, he decided not to walk until he was around 17 months old. I was totally stressed out thinking that there was something was wrong with him because Madeleine walked at 13 months, but when he was ready he just got up and walked. The only thing the boy never waited for was talking. He has been doing that nonstop for quite a while now. I think he learned early that he better speak up quickly, or his sister would be speaking for him. Today Micah proved to me once again that he is developing right on track at his own little pace. Several times this past summer I tried my hardest to begin potty training with him, but he was not interested at all. In fact, he was quite attached to his Pull-Ups and found them much more desirable than diapers. I was sort of discouraged when the summer came to an end, and he was still not using the potty. I asked Justin to talk to the ladies at Kit Den to see what we should do. Their advice was to wait just a little while and let him watch the other big boys going to the bathroom, and then send him in underwear with lots of extra clothes. Well, we took their advice. Today I decided to try out some big boy underwear for the day to see how he would handle it. I even took him out the Sam's Club in regular underwear. The boy did FANTASTIC! I am so proud of him. He has used the potty three times today, and he only had one accident. We are still wearing Pull Ups for naps and nighttime, but at 28 months old he is on his way to learning how all this works. I am sure the jellybean bribery didn't hurt either, but I am just happy that he seems to be understanding what using the potty is all about. I know this is a ridiculously long post about potty training, but I wanted to remember this day. And, it could be worse...I could have posted it on Facebook! My sister LOVES it when mamas discuss those topics on FB. Power to the potty trainers!
