Potty Party Time

So, I think Solly is house trained. Meaning, he's potty trained decently well in the house, while naked or in undies. But I'm not convinced he can hold it for more than the 5 seconds it takes to rush him to the potty after he says he has to go. So, I'm not convinced we can actually take him anywhere without a diaper. But for right now, I'll take my small victory.

We'd been giving him a couple minutes to play on my iPad as a reward after successfully producing something on the toilet. Which worked in many regards because I really didn't want to use a food reward, but he dislikes stickers, and I couldn't think of another reward that he'd consistently care about (though I wish I would've done something movement-based like when we help him jump really high, or spin around in circles, or something like that, which anyone can do anywhere without any props). Anyway, this presented a slight problem, because we won't always have the iPad around when we're out and about, and obviously he won't have it at daycare. It also often creates the problem of trying to take it away at some point before he has to pee again. I can often distract him with something else and sneak the iPad away, but it has caused more than one tantrum when I have to take it away. So yesterday and today I started to try to mix up the reward system while simultaneously weaning. So, the expectation is that something good will happen, but it's not necessarily always the same thing. So that makes life easier (for me). I'm also trying to delay the time he gets the reward (after he pulls up his undies, after I clean the potty, and after I try to distract him with another toy instead), and if he doesn't ask for something, I certainly don't offer (which happened twice today).

The reward variability has, however, lurked us over into food territory. Which I really, really didn't want to do. But it all started with Trader Joes. My trunk door kept hitting one of my grocery bags as we were trying to pack up and leave, so I ended up taking out my container of chocolate covered raisins which was falling out and being troublesome. I put it on the roof of the car so that I could close the door, and started putting Solomon in the car. He kept talking about how he wanted beans, and I'm looking all over for bees, something big, or anything he might be talking about before I realize he's calling my raisins 'beans.'

So, then we got started with giving a bean for poop on the potty. Sigh. But it's half fruit. So it's healthy. Right? Right?