A Potty for Luis!

Last night, Diego and I went a community production of Guys & Dolls with a friend of his from Rugby. Luis stayed with his best friend Caleb. On the way to Caleb's Luis was protesting - he wanted to come with Diego and me. When I picked Luis up, Bethany gave a rave review of the evening (a relief to me - though Luis and Caleb are best buddies, they can be known to fight like sworn enemies). Luis and Caleb played well together. They had fun having a bath together. They enjoyed a pre-bedtime snack together. I couldn't have been happier with how the evening went.

Except, it turns out that I could, in fact, have been happier. I AM happier. It turns out that sometime during the 5 hours that Luis spent with Caleb and Bethany, he potty-trained!

This morning, at 6:45a, he woke me up saying, "Mommy, I want to go tee-tee." Usually, he's all talk with this and refuses to go to the bathroom; he's just alerting me that he is about to pee in his diaper. But I dutifully took him to the bathroom, and removed his diaper. He stood up at the potty and peed like a pro. I was stunned. We woke Diego up to share the good news.

About an hour later, Luis announced, while playing outside that he had to tee tee again. Diego took of his diaper and Luis leaned against a tree. Turns out it was a false alarm. Over the next four hours, Luis peed in the potty three more times - all at his request (and, all standing up like a "big kid", and like Caleb). One of those times was at a new restaurant during lunch, and once was just after going down (diaper-less) for a nap.

I know that 9 good hours of using the potty, without any accidents, does not make for a potty-trained child. Luis had about 6 weeks in the early spring where he was interested in pooping in the potty, but that fad faded. We've been talking a lot about potty training lately and reading our potty book (see photo), ironically a loaner from Bethany and Caleb. He may wake up from his nap covered in pee. He may not use the potty again for a week. Or a month. All things are possible. But I am really, really, really excited to have a day like this - a success to fall back on if we need to provide encouragement. And I think that it is possible, just maybe possible that Luis may not where another diaper (at least not during the day). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.