I am FINALLY feeling pretty good about our potty-training experiences with Paige & Taylor.
How did I arrive at this “pretty good” feeling? Well, to begin, I started surveying some of my friends who have had twins and who have successfully potty-trained multiples. My sampling of other multiples mommies is somewhat small – only 5 moms. Actually, given how rare twins are to begin with, I’m rather amazed that I personally know 5 moms of twins that I can reach out to by phone/email and solicit advice from them! (2 of these moms are on the West Coast and 3 are on the East Coast). Well, anyways, I contacted each of them over the past few weeks to swap stories on our potty-training adventures, and it was so wonderfully refreshing to hear 5 out of 5 tell me that: 1). They didn’t start trying to potty-train their twins until 3 years of age; 2). They trained only one of the twins at a time; and 3). Some of the twins trained quickly – in a week or two, while others trained a lot more slowly, not getting it until closer to 3-1/2 years old.
Okay, so after my little sample survey to my multiples-mommy friends and after hearing them talk about their experiences and approach to potty-training their twins, it sure helped me feel like “okay, for twins in the world of potty-training them, we’re pretty much right in line with what other moms to twins have done…”
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have had these little gals potty-trained at 18-24 months like so many of my other friends have been able to do with their one baby; but, that just hasn’t been possible in our household. (Perhaps if I get pregnant again and have just ONE BABY/TODDLER to focus on the next time around, I’ll have the good fortune of having that one potty-trained at 18-24 months…now, that would be cool).
In the meantime, we are celebrating some real potty-training triumphs of our own these days! Both Paige and Taylor are pooping on the “big girl” potty consistently. I know. Can you hear me shouting a big "YAY" from here? The girls do still have the occasional poop mishap while they’re sleeping at naptime or overnight, but during our normal, waking, playing hours, I am pleased (no thrilled) to report that they’re officially “big girl poopers on the potty”!
Just how have we been celebrating our big girl potty poopers, you ask…well, with all the fanfare and panache that should come with celebrating their “big girl” moments on the potty! With lots of M&M’s and stickers! Okay, so some might think that’s more like bribery; but in our world, I like to think of it as a reward to keep them motivated and inspired to keep right on pooping on the potty!
Now, what’s funny about the whole pooping on the potty thing is this – I’ve heard that teaching little tykes to go poop on the potty is usually the hardest part of potty-training and that it doesn’t come as easily for tykes as the teaching pee-pee on the potty does. Figures. Figures, my girls would be little potty-training mavericks and that even in the area of potty-training, they would do it in the more unconventional way than most kids – getting the pooping part down first. Oh, well, that just gives me another reason to find Paige & Taylor even more endearing…because even in potty-training, these girls don’t follow the typical, standard well-traveled path that most other kids do learning to pee first then poop.
So, all in all, I’d say we’re 50% there on this whole potty-training thing. I can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel with diapers. YES! Just gotta’ get the girls interested in doing the pee-pee on the potty and we can kiss our diaper-wearing days goodbye (except at naptimes/overnight at bedtime). I do however remain cautiously optimistic on the pee-pee on the potty successes for Paige & Taylor at this time though. Why, you ask? Well, several factors are working against us…first, Paige still shows no interest in going pee-pee on the “big girl” potty. She actually will hold in her pee-pee while she’s on the potty, then no sooner do we come out of the bathroom, she’ll piddle on the floor, the carpet or even worse one of our nice sofa pillows. Or get this, on more than one occassion, Paige has piddled in her “big girl” underwear and has just kept right on playing. So much for the theory of once a child feels the dampness or dribble down their legs, they won’t like it and will want to be in dry underwear. Not Paige. She could totally care less….she’s too busy playing to let her wet britches and wet underwear slow her down. Ha, ha, ha.
And, how about this one….this one is actually my personal favorite because it’s a testament to how little twin toddlers can learn to outsmart, outmaneuver their parents at the youngest of years. For example, when Paige sits down for her turn on the potty to go pee-pee, right away she starts up with either “All done, all done, all done” or “Taylor’s turn, Taylor’s turn”. (I'm so glad that Paige is looking out for Taylor's potty-training best interests). I know, it’s funny. It makes me laugh too. But, it gets even better. When it comes time for Taylor to go pee-pee on the “big girl” potty, Taylor exhibits that old tried and true case of monkey-see, monkey-do. That's right, she’s heard Paige say “Taylor’s turn, Taylor’s turn” that Taylor thinks it’s only appropriate for her to shout out “Paige’s turn, Paige’s turn” when it’s Taylor's time to go pee-pee on the potty. What a racket these little girls are running on their mommy already, eh?
So, yes, we’re 50% there on the potty-training. Pooping is easy for the twins to do on the “big girl” potty, but that pee-pee on the potty is coming a little more slowly. We’re getting there, but only in Paige and Taylor’s own sweet time.
