As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to just do it on a Friday evening, mainly due to 3 things. Firstly, is that I am expecting our fourth child this July. Secondly, is that Joel’s turning 4 this December, and next year he’ll start kindergarten. Thirdly, I’m just tired of changing his diapers.

I’ve been holding off toilet training Joel mainly because he’s verbally still trying to communicate well. He’s yet to pronounce words properly, but he’s getting there lately. He still babbles, and I do find it hard to understand him some times.

But I can’t hold it off much longer. It’s now or never.

The challenging part is not the toilet training or Joel himself. The challenge is for me mentally, psychologically and emotionally to deal with teaching him. Toilet training scares me more than it scares Joel, because of the physical work that comes with it (cleaning, focusing, being consistent), as well as the emotional toil (his crying, complaining, getting away from the ease of just changing his diapers). It’s nerve-wreaking.

I never had to teach Eric toilet training, actually. The daycare he went to last time made sure he was trained, and for that I am most grateful. Joel goes to a different daycare now, and the responsibility falls on me.

Anyway, I’ll be breaking Joel’s toilet training journal into many parts as I don’t have the time to actually post fully. I need to rest.

FRIDAY EVENING

As soon as we arrived home, Joel pooed in his diaper. Here was my chance to take off his last diaper for the rest of his life. I cleaned him up, and asked Eric’s help to hide the rest of Joel’s disposable diapers (which I plan to use for Ezra). Darling hubby had to stay back and finish his MSc homework till 10p at the office, so I was relying very much on my dear 9-year old Eric for assistance.

Using the e-book I purchased that afternoon called “3 Day Potty Training” by Lora Jensen, I did my best to follow the advice. I also purchased a kid toilet seat and a booster so that Joel could use it to stand up the normal toilet bowl. I didn’t buy a potty because I noticed Joel didn’t want to sit on one at all.