Potty Training... Monkey George

So I've been procrastinating the whole potty training thing with Ethan. Mostly because he could care less (and because I have a 4 month old nursing baby). He will wear a soaking wet, 20 pound diaper the entire day if I forget to change him (I'm not confessing to anything). And because of the miracle of modern diapers, he stays dry and doesn't get diaper rash and so is happy to live in this way. But since many of his friends (some even younger than him) seem to have of late mastered this skill, I decided to give it a whirl. I read this crazy book called "Potty Train your child in just 1 day!" and I thought- I may be crazy but it would be great if that really worked. So Friday I set out to have this all-day potty-a-thon with Ethan.

We spent the morning "potty-training" his Curious George doll that he calls Monkey George. This seemed like a good idea to my first-grade-teacher-mind. He can learn by teaching the doll. And the morning was a success. Monkey George peed in the toilet several times (okay so I squirted lemonade in the little pot while Ethan wasn't looking) and then we acted all excited and gave him a sticker and a treat.

The premise was that then in the afternoon, Ethan would understand the whole process by vicariously living it through his doll and then he'd get to do it himself. Sadly, Ethan was not as patient as the doll at sitting on the potty. We ended up letting him watch a movie while he sat there and waiting for him to do his thing. In the end he peed 3 times but only because he happened to be sitting there at the right time and while it was a long day I think it was worth the try.

It would have been great if it had worked but since it didn't, we'll just wait til we get to Utah and I can let him run half-naked around the backyard. He'll get it someday and for now I laugh everytime he brings me his Monkey George and tells me that George needs to go potty (someone has figured out a sneaky way to get a treat).