if you have to pee, pee on a tree!

We were making some serious progress several months ago in our potty-training adventures with Will. Then Hallie was born and he has regressed somewhat. Despite a promise to go to the donut STORE and pick his own donut if he poops in the potty, he has not done so in several months. Peeing is getting better though, often he can go almost all day without peeing in his diaper except while he's sleeping.

Well, as you may have guessed by the post title, we tried a new technique which was championed by Grandma Susie and her depth of potty-training wisdom. During the week we were at the Lodge, Will spent most of his waking hours running around outside, and when it was warm enough, he was usually completely naked, or naked+boat coat (+ sword).

He was entertained by the rhyme: "if you have to pee, pee on a tree" and when we asked him if he had to go pee, he frequently did and would deliver (he also got a candy for doing this, just as if he peed in the potty). First, Grandpa and I had to help show him how to "point and shoot", but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

We were fishing a lot and there aren't many trees in Grandpa's boat. One time this resulted in him peeing right on the floor of the boat. We didn't have any great rhymes (though in retrospect, "for goodness sake, pee in the lake!" would have worked well), but eventually he learned to pee off the side pretty well, and even preferred the lake by the end of the week, probably because he spent so much time in or on it. Also, he doesn't have to aim (notice the "hands free" technique in the picture on the right).

As I mentioned, I think the pee potty-training is much improved, but poop is a different story. For example, he was walking around the cabin diaperless (I think he had shorts on but no dipe). There was a bit going on - I think we were all working on dinner or something. Suddenly, Erin walked into the living room and saw this on the ground: do not click this if you are eating or are easily grossed out. Her immediate reaction was confusion, and said aloud: "What the heck is this?". Will, without hesitation and matter-of-factly: "it's poop, mama!"