Potty Training a Bust

I officially called off Colin's potty training around 4:30 this afternoon.  The day had not been completely horrible.  It was pretty even across the board as far as attempts, accidents, and successes.  BUT...one of my biggest concerns in doing this was Colin's defiance and disrespect for my authority.  It's been a hard battle.  One that is partly just a 2 year old thing, but something that also takes some consistent discipline..and that's something that I really have to work on. 

In the morning, he had a small accident in the kitchen.  I took him to the bathroom and told him to wait while I went and found him some clean underwear.  (I did have a pile stashed in there, but I ran out and forgot to replace.  Ugh!)  Of course he didn't stay.  INSTEAD he choose to go into my room, on top of the living room rug I had rolled up and moved out of the way, and finish peeing on it.  :) 

So I admit.  That was half my fault.  I should have put him on the stool to see if he had to go anymore.  But to be right there, and not even try!?

As a whole though, he did pretty well in the morning.  A few successess and a few accidents.  He even pooped in the toilet today before his nap!

After nap time it kind of seemed to go down hill.  When the timer would go off Ryan and I would get all excited and say "It's potty time!!!  YEAH!!", but it was taking more and more convincing to get him to get up and go to the bathroom.  I knew he was due for a good pee cause he sucked down a whole cup of koolaid since I woke him up from his nap.  We had already made it through two 15/20 minute rounds with no success, so I KNEW he had to go.  Man, was he fighting it though.  The timer went off, we went to the bathroom, and I couldn't get him on the stool.  So I sat down and was trying to ask him why he didn't want to go pee and he said he was scared.  So I said, "Well, ok.  Let's pray about it and then you can try."  I wasn't even two words into our prayer when he started peeing all over the floor...and my feet.  Ugh! 

I guess it frustrated me because we were RIGHT THERE!  One foot from the toilet!!!!  If he would have gotten up on the stool WHEN I told him to, he wouldn't have had an accident.

At that point I made a decision.  He wasn't ready.  I can't drag him to the bathroom kicking and screaming.  Although I can discipline him for not obeying me when I give him a command in other things, I can't discipline him for not going pee when I tell him to. :)

And as much as I want him out of diapers, I'm not sure I'm 100% ready.  I am already at my max capacity for tension.  We are at the end of a year deployment, and I'm feeling it.  I realized that I was telling him it was ok if he had an accident, that they are part of the learning process, but my actions weren't exactly saying the same.  I was getting frustrated and annoyed.

We had started potty training Ryan a few months earlier in age then what Colin is now.  It was a longer process, and it took a while for him to get it.  I guess I was hoping that since Colin was a little bit older, he would be able to catch on quick.  And he is definitely at the stage where he wants to do everything himself, so I was hoping this would just be another one of those things. 

All in all...it wasn't a complete failure.  I am a bit disappointed that he's still in diapers, but he's at least peed in the toilet now!  So we can work from there.  I'll keep doing some "pre-potty training" and tyring to talk it up so that way about a month or two down the road we can try again.  And I know that having Tim home is going to make a HUGE difference, for the better.  (If only that were tomorrow!!!!!)