To Pee or Not to Pee

Back in the fall, when the deadlines for preschool applications all seemed to be looming, I thought about researching somewhere for peanut to go for the 09-10 school year. But, peanut's got an August birthday, and, chances are, we'll keep him from starting kindergarten for a year so he'll be a barely six as opposed to a barely five when he starts. This is more for his social and emotional development than academic (hello, have you all read Outliers? Okay, I haven't either, but the hubby did and I believe him!). So my reasoning was, keep him out of preschool another year and then he'll have two years of preschool prior to kindergarten as opposed to three years.

Random logic, maybe, but seemed to work for me last fall. I was at peace with the decision.

Then we got pregnant and the reality of chasing a toddler/preschooler who needed more stimulation than I could physically handle this spring made me question this decision. A lot. I figured, though, that most of the preschools I liked would be full and all hope would be lost. As I started gaining my energy back, I tried convincing myself I could handle it. No problem. Two kids at home all day will be a breeze. Right?

Until, at happy hour, a wonderful friend mentioned the preschool her daughter attends was going to be expanding...long story short, I called, we visited, we liked, he's in for next year. I can't even tell you what a huge relief this has been - to know I will have a few hours on a few days a week in the latter stages of this pregnancy as well as when pumpkin arrives. Not to mention I think it will be a wonderful outlet for peanut. When we visited the school, he had a tantrum because he wanted to stay (luckily, they agreed to accept him despite the tantrum).

And then the lovely director informed me the three year old class needs to be potty trained.

Oh.

I was planning on making a full-on attempt this summer anyway, but figured if it didn't work we could shelve it until later in the fall or after pumpkin arrived. Now it's looking like I have a firm deadline.

My friends with potty trained kids have a mixed bag of experiences. Some starts and stops. Some early and easy successes. Some who had a huge help from their day cares to make the transition a lot easier at home. I have no idea where peanut will fall on this spectrum since this kid could have the most obvious stink in his pants and deny up and down that he's pooped.

So, I've been gathering up resources in the last few days. Researching books on Amazon. Quizzing friends about what's worked and what hasn't. Trying to get a handle on all the different tactics, approaches, reward ideas, etc, so that when our traveling show is over at the end of the month, we can hit the ground running in July and MAYBE (fingers crossed, salt over the shoulder, spit-spit, stars aligned) he'll be out of diapers by his third birthday.

And I think he's getting close to recognizing when he has to go. After stubbing his toe, he came crawling into my lap for some comfort. While I held him, he got very quiet, so I asked if his owie was better. He giggled.

"Mommy, I peed on you."

Yeah. It's going to be an interesting summer.