It’s a Potty Party Day!!! Yep…the day when parents around the country cross their fingers for the success the book, “Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day” promises. The day when you joyfully toss the dipaers in the trash can with the expectation of a clean break, a smooth transition from pants to potty. With the beautiful sounds of flushing and clapping, the look of pride on your face and the grand babyhood graduation celebration in the background! It’s 24 hours of training, leading to a lifetime of excrement success!!! Or in our case, the day when all of efforts were followed by a week of sticky #1 and smelly # 2 finding it’s way gracefully to the carpet and every other square inch of our home! So what exactly is a potty party you ask? Let me explain….

A Potty party is an entire day devoted to the joint parental efforts of potty training. The concept was developed by a frustrated mother who couldn’t send her son to pre-school because he had extreme diaper dependence….or incontinence. So, she developed a method of giving your kid the funnest day of their life, better than birthdays, to help resistant children conquer potty fears by transforming their life for one day into their wildest dreams come true. In John’s case, when he woke up, he was no longer John Kelty, he was SUPER JOHN…the adventurer, resue hero. The bathroom was no longer a bathroom but a super hero recharging station. Beverages were not simply thirst quenchers, but juice became jumping juice and lemonade was flying-ade. Snacks weren’t just nourishment, they were fuel for all the necessary tasks of a resue, super hero. The theme was accompanied by every Dora and Diego product made, within our budget which kept getting extended. Super John’s rescue outfit was a Diego shirt, Diego underwear and a cape with a rescue belt with cell phone, flash light and other super tools. The hamper became a resue car and rescue boat. We were exhausted by the end of the first hour of hype and couldn’t wait for John’s nap….I mean superhero slumber for important recue refueling! Ben spent the day with Aunt Tris which gave John all the attention he craves. We borrowed a doll that wets from the Ramsey girls that John named Akis…. (Ah-Keys) the made up name of his imaginary friend.

The idea was to model and assist John in teaching “Akis” how to use the bathroom until lunch. Lunch time would then become a celebration for the doll who had been potty trained. After naptime you transfer all the teaching, lessons, praise, stickers and sugary rewards to the kid with the promise of a huge party with proud supporters at supper time if he could have the same success as the doll. We had a very productive day and a fabulous family party….followed by several days of intense rebellion. I should have known better than to expect such an easy transition with my spirited, intense, independent little boy. It has to be John’s idea and in John’s timing for anything to work. I should have expected him to follow his normal pattern with potty training as well.

I have had many of you ask about the potty party and I have been unable to blog until now because I have been so frustrated. Frustarted at all the money spent, the time it took me to read the entire book, the emotional energy invested in the potty day and my ignorant expectations…. all for a week of rebellion? Urrrr….But we were persistent. I thought about giving up. I was tired of scrubbing poopy underwear and slipping in pee puddles and tired of fighting with John who would joyfully tell me he had the poopy feeling and then proceed to show me his poopy fingers, the proud dislay of his work. But we kept on keeping on and I am proud to report that after a long week and a half, Super John is a BIG KID and very proud of his new tricks. After many peeing contests with daddy and trying to beat his personal best record of “how many seconds can you pee” he did it! One day he woke up and decided he didn’t like the gross feeling of smooshy crap in his underwer and pee peee trickling down his legs. I stopped giving him the reaction I think he had been previously looking for and when he decided to get BIG…it worked. The peeing came first. There was major hesitancy about popping on the potty but after promising a blizzard (or lizard) last night he took the plunge and we raced to DQ for his reward.
I of course rewarded myself as well!

Can you hear me taking a deep sigh of relief? I am so so proud of him. I expect I’ll feel the same way when he graduates from college. This was a huge burden and I am still shocked that it’s working. everytime he runs to the potty I feel like crying and clapping and singing in the streets… “John John puts his stuff in the POT!”

So Would I reccomend the book? Absolutly. However, I might try more simple measures to begin with before you extend yourself and your pocket book to see if you have a kid that doesn’t require such measures!

I thought you might like to see some Potty Party pictures of our house…I mean our Super Hero Diego, Dora, Party Cave!!!

The house was completely decorated…transformed when John woke up. He was so excited. He said, “Mommy Daddy, look, it’s my birthday!” Here is a Super John sign I made and put on the mirror over our sofa!

The Treat tray with lots of different special drinks and snacks….M&M’s, mini marshmallows, cheese cubes, grapes and mini cookies!

The sticker potty charts for Akis and John! The Bathroom…or Recharging Station. Chris is reading John a potty book!

The actual potty party celebration…Yes that would be John blowing out the candles on his Diego cupcakes after we sang, “Happy Potty Day to you!” Some decorations. I put fun pictures of John on all the picture frames in the downstairs. I used four entire rolls of streamers and lots and lots of Dora wrapping paper!
The proud Big Boy on his Big Day!!!

Thanks for holding your breath and for all the potty inquery. I’m just glad we have a little time before we have to have Ben’s Potty Party. I’m sure it will take us the full 2 years to recooperate!