Potty Talk.

You're in the car driving along when out of no where... "I HAFTA PEEEEEE!!!" or even better, "POOOOP!!!!!" Yup, that's right - it's all bout the potty talk today. Literally. And no, I'm not talking about your wife or your elderly grandmother. If you have a child over the age of three, you've probably been there. If you don't have children, you probably won't want any after this. Just kidding! The first time I really remember having this type of incident was back when we lived in Virginia. Owen was almost three and had been potty trained for a little while, so we felt pretty confident going out and about sans diapers. We were heading down to have dinner with our family, Jay and Lindsey, who lived about a 45 minute drive from us. Driving down interstate 95 in rush hour from the DC area isn't exactly smooth sailing, but we were managing to make decent timing when we hear our little two year old, "I HAFTA PEE!!" Of course we begged, pleaded, negotiated everything we could think of in order to get him to 'hold it' until we got to his cousins, but it was clear that wasn't an option this time. With an older kid I think you have a little more leeway saying, "You HAVE to hold it for five more minutes until we get to an exit!" or something along those lines, but with a freshly trained two year old? Not happening. So we did what any parent concerned about their car interior would do and we pulled over on the side of the highway and let the boy pee. Eric hopped out and snuck our little guy behind the car door while I looked over my shoulder checking for police lights. (Is that illegal??) Once we were all back in the car and on our way, we laughed about our crazy life as parents and how silly we looked on the side of a busy highway with our toddler bare bottomed.

Fast forward to our weekend getaway a few weeks ago, this time with Mason. Mase is three and a half and has been fully trained for about a year now. But again, when you're in a car with a toddler and nature calls - you answer!  Because he isn't so fresh out of diapers like back when Owen pulled the same skit, we felt a little less guilt about brushing it off for a while. He got pretty anxious but we assured him we were, "alllmmmooostttt thereee" and what's even funnier is that once we got there he didn't have to go anymore. Go figure! 

Well, last night my itty bitty little baby Gavin, (whose not really a baby and is twenty months old - but is my youngest that I'm trying to keep itty bitty) decided that while Mama was out fighting the funk and shopping with Nana, he was going to pee on the potty!!! I am SUPER proud of my little guy, and secretly super sad that I missed it. I mean, really Gav? I'm with these kids all day, every day and of course he waits until the small fraction of time I take a breather. Pshh. Kids. Anyways, back to being super excited! Lately he has been taking an interest here and there and insisting he take his diaper off quite often. When he does, I simply say, "Do you need to pee on the potty?" and sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. He likes to just stand there on his stool and hang for a while and most of the time I don't mind letting him. I figure if he's getting comfortable with the idea of it then that should only be a plus when I actually do decide to potty train him. This morning he decided he wanted to try again so I was hoping to witness the big show. Instead, he climbed in the bathtub and peed there. Nice try little one! For now, we aren't really trying to kick diapers just yet but if Gavin wants to test the waters a bit, I'm happy to follow along. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we'll be hearing him as we drive down Rt 2, "POOOPPPP!!!" 

So good for you, Gavin. Mama and Daddy are very proud!!