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Shoes drying on a lineToday I woke up in a much more optimistic mood. Some good night sleep can do wonders and I was ready to work hard on Eric’s potty training. Whatever it takes, right?

I was also not setting my hopes high to avoid unnecessary disappointments. If I get to clean mess the whole day, who cares, as long as we have just a little bit of progress. But it turned out to be a pretty good day!

The whole morning every time I escorted him to the potty, he peed. Woo-hoo! It was an ongoing celebration. Eric was getting one star after another on his potty-training chart, we were jumping up and down and doing our happy dance. He was very excited about carrying his potty to the toilet, emptying and flushing, didn’t want to skip a single thing.

But then it was time to go outside, and I was facing the same dilemma again. How do we solve the toilet problem in the park? There are no public toilets there. I didn’t want to go back to diapers, or even pull-ups. Finally we were getting some progress and I didn’t want to mess it up.

The best idea I could come up with was “The hell with what neighbors think!” and let him pee in the bushes. Then it was time for some marketing. I (excitedly) told Eric that we’re going to the park and when it’s time for him to pee, he can do it the same way our dog does – in the bushes and under the trees.

He looked surprised, but took it rather well. Off we went and in the park, when it was time to ask, I said – let’s go pee in the bushes, and he agreed. Now I am going to get into some kind of embarrassing details, so if you’re unconformable with details of how boys pee, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

I have never seen a man pee (only in the movies and only from the back), so I was unsure how to help Eric not pee on his pants. I imagined I’d need to hold his penis for him, since he can’t do it himself yet, but then he might not want me to touch him. That was right, the minute I touched him he refused to pee and wanted to pull his pants back on. I tried to hold him in the air in a position as if he was sitting on a toilet – no luck, he didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t want to pee. Then finally I had to take his pants off completely and finally, when he was standing on his own, he did it. Lesson learnt – he needs to feel in complete control, otherwise he’s getting uncomfortable.

Having mastered outside toileting Eric felt very proud of himself. Later on we went to another bush and repeated the earlier success. I was feeling so relieved, because I could see that my boy likes being dry and understands that he shouldn’t wet his pants – yesterday this wasn’t clear to me at all.

This was a good day. Eric only had a couple of accidents towards the evening, when we both were too tired :). I recon we’re one step closer to dryness now!

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