It's Potty Time! Part One

We are about to take the plunge, so to speak, and get down to business with potty training our toddler. His 2nd birthday is next Saturday, so I think it is high time the "big boy" gets down to business. We have casually introduced him to the potty, but really haven't worked on it to date. I've been searching around for advice and here are the techniques that I am planning to try:

• Skipping Pull-ups at home - Knowing this child, he might be a lazy potty trainer. I can see him being too engrossed in what he's doing and treating the pull-up as a diaper. I think we'll jump right in with regular underwear. We will use pull-ups or diapers when we go out and at night, in the beginning stages.

• Character Underwear - We're picking him up a few packs of underwear in some of his favorite characters. Thomas the Tank Engine, Diego, and Toy Story, if we can find them. I'm hoping this will get him interested enough to not want to wear diapers anymore.

• Sticker Charts- This kid loves stickers and also loves to show off what he's done. I think he'll love the idea of having a chart to show daddy, when he gets home at night. I even found a potty training chart with his favorite thing: trains!
  

• Sitting First - Even though it isn't what daddy does, we plan on training him to sit on the potty first, before we have to deal with aiming. I have the rest of my life to clean up the off-target sprays from the bathroom floor and wall.

I'm pretty sure he's ready, as he's showing interest, tells me when he needs changing, can take off his clothes, and follows simple instructions. If I'm wrong, no big deal, we can try again in a few months. Wish us luck when we start next week and I'll keep you posted on our progress and any further tips and tricks I come across.

Handy Baking Soda Tip

We've been hit by a nasty little stomach bug around here and I've had an exciting time cleaning up the aftermath. As I sit here, I'm trying to decide if the churning in my own stomach means my turn is coming or if its all psychosomatic.

Once I finished the final clean up after what I hope was the last round of sickness, I could still smell that nasty vomit smell. After checking to be sure it wasn't on me, I realized that it was my carpet. The carpet cleaner did the trick on the mess itself, but didn't kill the odor.

I did what any good mother would do and hit up Google for an answer to my problem. There were quite a few remedies suggested, but the only one that I had the ingredients on hand for was baking soda.

I sprinkled baking soda all over the smelly area and let it to sit for an hour. I threw a towel over it to keep the kids from tracking it everywhere and the baby from trying to eat it. When I went back and vacuumed it up, the smell was gone!

I'm going to recheck the carpet tomorrow and see if the results are the same, but a few hours later it is still working. If the smell doesn't return, this will definitely be a trick that I'll use again.