Potty Time?

One day this week, Aiden needed a diaper change. (Ok, so that doesn't mean he needed a change only one day this week. He gets changed several times each day.... Haha!) I needed to put the clean diaper on him, and he was trying to get away. Here's how it went down...

Mommy: Aiden, you need to either put on a diaper or go on the potty. (When he complains about having to put on a diaper, we tell him that sure - he can go without...once he starts using the potty. So, he gets reminded about it often. It's his choice!)

Aiden: I don't like those choices! Go potty or put on a diaper... I don't want to.

Mommy, trying not to laugh at what the little thing just said: Well, then what will you do when you need to go pee?

Aiden: I just want to stand up.

So, he doesn't always make sense.

I waited a little bit, which means I let him go without anything on for a while, and then returned to the conversation. He decided he wanted to wear underwear (he knew he had some in his room...for when he starts going potty) and that he would pee on the potty if he needed to go. We gave it a shot. He waltzed around in underwear for a couple of hours, never peeing in them. He thinks underwear is the coolest thing ever right now. I put him on the potty before naptime, and he peed!

This isn't the first time. A few weeks ago, twice he peed on the potty...times he was trying to put off bedtime, really. But the thing we noticed was that he was controlling it. He would watch as he used his stomach muscles to make himself pee. And he did that again this time. This week, he's spent a good amount of time many days in underwear. Not more than a few hours at a time, and he certainly doesn't sleep in underwear. If he says he won't pee on the potty, he's choosing to wear a diaper. He hasn't asked to go potty, but just about any time we put him on it, he will pee. One night at dinnertime, he didn't want to put on a diaper, so he came to the table with underwear on. At one point he stopped eating, looked up, and said "I peed" as if he was a little worried. I checked...no pee. So, off to the potty we went, where he did go.

Kind of exciting!

Who knows if this means anything about potty training. And I don't think we could even call it "training" because we're letting Aiden take the lead here. (Actually, in some circles now, it's called potty learning, which does tend to make more sense. It's about them learning, not so much about them being trained.) We're taking a very relaxed approach to this. Aiden will be ready for using the potty when he's ready. And he'll know more about when that is than we will. So...if he wants to go, great. If not, that's ok. We will not push it. Besides, this is one of those things toddlers will control if you try to push too much...there's no point trying too hard when it could just backfire on us. And since we use cloth diapers, we're not in a hurry to get rid of a diaper expense (because there really isn't one!). Sure, we have to do a couple extra loads of laundry a week, but that's really not a big deal.

So, yeah, it's kind of exciting. We'll see how it goes, though. It's totally up to the little guy. It is really cute to see him running around in underwear, though. He prefers to be in ONLY underwear, of course. I need to get a picture to post... ;)