Stop the Presses! Hold the Phone!

I think Lex may be potty training himself!

I can't honestly say that I'm potty training him, and yet there is potty training activities going on.

Lately, I've stopped changing his diapers on top of the diaper changing table. This is mostly due to safety concerns. Our diaper changing table is located near a window in our loft overlooking our two-story foyer. Lex has become very interesting in trying to leap from the diaper changing table on the second floor to the first floor below during diaper changes. Therefore, whenever he needs a dirty diaper cleaned, I just move the changing pad from the changing table to the floor and change him there. This switch has moved him closer to the potty that sits next to the changing table. This has inspired me to ask him if he wants to sit on the potty whenever he is getting a diaper changed. Sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn't. He has peed in the potty a couple of times this way, and a couple of times before bath time, but I couldn't honestly say that it was anything more than dumb luck. Luck or not, we always made him feel like a special big boy when he peed in the potty, in hopes that he would associate it with a positive experience.

It turns out that it worked.

Yesterday, when I was unloading the dishwasher, Lex came to me, clearly in distress, and told me that he needed a diaper change. I figured his diaper must have been really full and uncomfortable, so I took him upstairs to change it. But his diaper was clean. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty, as per usual, and he said yes. Then he did his business. Both kinds of business. On the potty. And that's when I realized that the distress I saw in him was actually the pee-pee dance. I just wasn't looking for that in him yet.

I was so proud! So happy! He figured it out all on his own! But, since I hadn't actually done anything to facilitate his use of the potty, I figured that I couldn't reasonably expect it to continue.

But today, when we were getting ready to leave the house, and I was buckling him into his car seat, he told me that he needed a diaper change. I knew his diaper was clean, so I asked him if he needed to use the potty. He said yes, and soon enough he had done his thing in the potty again!

I haven't had to change a dirty diaper in two days now! He clearly can recognize when he has to poop, and he doesn't want to do it in his diaper now. Good for him! I honestly can't say that I blame him...

Hopefully soon he will kick the wet diaper habit, too. Do you think he'll just take care of that all on his own, too?