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Toddler toilet troubles and February goals

February 6th, 2015 at 05:41 pm

I know we're already a week into February, but I wanted to look at January spending before making goals. So these goals are really for the last three weeks of the month.

Indirectly related to February goals, we are working on potty-training DS1 (he's three). He is definitely interested in wearing underwear but not so interested in using the toilet. But we are working on it. However, he is VERY interested in flushing things down the toilet right now. He showed absolutely no interest before, so we haven't done anything to child-proof the toilets. But now I think we will have to lock the toilet bowls or something. This morning he tried to flush his brother's baby monitor. Thankfully it was too big to fit down!

On to my February goals:

(1) Potty train DS1. Cautiously optimistic we can meet this goal. Would love to lower our diaper costs!

(2) Stick to a dinner meal plan, allowing for one night of take-out/pizza a week. From tracking our variable spending last month, eating out seemed to be a big expense that we should be able to address. As suggested by many of you, we are going to try to stick to pretty simple food for dinner. Sandwiches, fruit, and veggies, for example. The bonus is that this is the food our toddler prefers to eat anyway, so fewer dinnertime battles!

(3) Spend less on food at work. I'm not going to try to cut all my lunch/coffee spending, but I can definitely do better. For starters, I am going to make brownies this weekend and freeze them in individual servings. I'll also take my own teabags to work. That will save me my daily $3.50 afternoon snack each day. (Yes, I have a tea and a brownie every day at work. We're averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night right now, and this gets me through the afternoon. Not a good long-term solution, but right now it is about survival.) I'll also try to pack lunch a couple of days each week.

I'll continue to track all our variable spending and report back at the end of the month.

Any good potty-training tips out there? Or suggestions for curing DS1 of his flushing obsession?

5 Responses to “Toddler toilet troubles and February goals”

  1. Wife of the Deacon Says:
    1423244786


    I regularly feed my own family of seven plus whatever friends are over (and there always kids coming and going) and I have learned that the only alternative to my dinner is PB&J (on whole wheat bread, so marginally healthy?). And if one of my children choses to eat PB&J several nights in a row, so be it. No sense in battling, or in my opinion, forcing kids to eat what they don't like it (should add that I've dealt with food allergies for several: eggs, nuts, etc).

    I seem to recall that my oldest son was a breeze to potty train and he was very helpful to two younger brothers who are 1-1/2 and 2-1/2 years younger. My first are 12 months apart and the younger one was actually trained before the older one. Just personality types. Good luck!

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1423246811

    Ugh, I wish I had potty-training tips! Our older kid was pretty easy, but then she's always been pretty compliant. Our younger showed interest at 1 year old and we thought we were going to get lucky, but she turns 3 next month and still shows little ability to not soil underwear. When I feel like we can't be vigilant, I just put her in pullups.

    Our latest trick is only letting her use her LeapPad -- which she is obsessed with -- when on the potty. I'm sure it's not the healthiest solution, but we were desperate to change the script somehow, since once she'd wet/pooped her undies a few times it seemed like she just got used to that and it wasn't going to trigger a bigger effort to get to the potty.

    Also, we moved the potty chair onto the main floor, between living room and dining room, in hopes that if it's close to where she's playing, she might start to get there in time.

  3. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1423290037

    No toilet training tips, but making brownies is a great idea!

  4. doingitallwrong Says:
    1423316719

    The only potty training tip I know, which only works for boys, is to toss a handful of Fruit Loops into the bowl and teach him to aim for the hole in the Loop. Wink It turns it into a game and is self-reinforcing.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1423343635

    No clue on toilet training, but likewise - great idea on the brownies!

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