Thank you Alphie!

After weeks and months of trying to potty train my sweet, adorable little Cohen but to no avail... I thought all hope was lost.  I'd tried everything!  And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING!  Trust me.  Don't question me.  Everything.  He just had no interest in using the toilet.  I was kicking myself in the butt because way back when in April, the week before Atticus was born, Co actually WANTED to use the toilet, but I discouraged him to do so and encouraged him to wait... because that's what all the parenting books suggest: NEVER try to potty train a child during a move or when a new baby is about to be born....  Anyhow, speed ahead to about a month and half ago--- he had his first accident at preschool.  OOPS!  And of course, it happened to be on picture day. Just to clarify- in order to go to the preschool Ian and Cohen attend, students are SUPPOSED to be potty trained.  Obviously Cohen WASN'T potty trained, but he could hold it and wait to use the bathroom after school was out.  See, he really WAS always ready to be potty trained!  He's just as stubborn as a mule and wouldn't give it a try!  I swear it's probably easier to potty train an elephant than Co!!!  Anyhow, back to picture day, for some reason or other, he COULDN'T hold it and he let it go AT.SCHOOL.BEFORE.PICTURES.!!!  The front desk took care of the mess and put a Pull Up on him and some lovely gray SWEAT PANTS.  Awesome.  When I dropped him at school he was wearing his cute little pair of dark skinny jeans, with his blue plaid/gingham button down shirt and black Toms- when I picked him up, he looked like a total goof.  I PRAYED that he didn't take his pictures in the fugly sweats, but what would you know?!  I got his pictures last week and sure enough- there he is, front row, wearing sweatpants!!!  For picture day!!!  Oh my!!!

Disclaimer: Okay, so maybe you're looking at the picture above and wondering why it looks like a circus pic... truth is, Cohen's classmates and teacher all don't really have super tiny blurry faces--- for privacy purposes I decided to distort their faces so readers couldn't see other peoples kids, only mine.  And don't you just LOVE Cohen's expression?!  He looks SO happy to have his picture taken... NOT!  He's probably ticked he had to wear those ugly sweat pants.

Okay, SO, I was under the impression with Co that the potty incident at school was just a one time thing- he gave me his word (note to self: never trust a 3 year old) but what would you know... about a week later, he was wearing another Pull Up the front office put on him.  Okay- I was embarrassed... but surely, there had to have been other 3 year olds in the preschool who had potty accidents too, right? Well, if there were, they probably weren't going number 2 three days in a row in their pants at school!  Ugh. The front desk wasn't too happy about cleaning up his messes, and I was loosing all my credibility, SO about 3 weeks ago, I decided to keep Cohen home from preschool UNTIL he was really, actually 100% potty trained.  The first week was really quite a failure.  I'd sit him on the toilet and he'd just sit there and cry- or scream- you pick...  I'd leave him on there for 20-25 minutes at a time... NOTHING!  The second I'd finally get him off the toilet and put his undies on him, he'd pee or poop!!!

About a week into potty training with NO SUCCESS, I was in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast and the boys were watching something on Nick Jr.  A commercial came on advertising a brand new toy called Alphie.  My boys were spellbound!  Particularly Co.  It DID look pretty cool and it's an interactive robot that teaches little kids their alphabet, colors and other important things... I considered getting it for Cohen for Christmas, but after another unsuccessful day of potty training, I got desperate and ordered Alphie with overnight shipping on Amazon (hey, I got a great deal!)... Alphie arrived the following morning and the boys were SUPER excited to use him. There was an exception though- Alphie wasn't for the older boys to play with- he belonged to Co, that is if and when Cohen used the toilet.  I told him he could play with Alphie for 15 minutes every time after he went potty on the toilet and 30 minutes for every time he'd poop on the toilet.  You should have seen you know who spring into action!  He was determined to play with Alphie, so without hesitation he used the toilet!!!  One time turned into two times, 2 turned into 6 and 6 turned into 10--- 10 became 20 and 20 became 40...  we're at the end of week 3 and guess who has gone every day this week without a diaper and without ANY accidents!!!  Cohen went back to school this past week and he's been using the toilet COMPLETELY on his own!!!  I don't even NEED to remind him and he has zero fears about using the toilet anywhere else!!!  I can't even begin to explain what a huge relief it is now that he's potty trained!!!  I LOVE it!!!  Instead of 3 in diapers, we just have 2!  Would you believe me if I told you we had 4 in diapers at one time?! CRaZy huh?!  That was way back when, when Noah was 3 1/2 years old, Ian was barely 2, Cohen was barely 1 and Bentley was just born.   I'm already plotting to potty train Bentley.  Sure he just barely turned 2 but surely he's learned a thing or two from watching Cohen learn to use the toilet, he must be ready too!  We'll see how ambitious I am a week from now... for the time being, I'm going to give myself a break from potty training- I feel entitled to at least a week off.  I've enjoyed having all my boys close in age, but Spencer and I certainly NEVER considered how frustrating it would be to potty train 5 boys year after year, literally!  Unfortunately, no kid is the same.  What works for one, doesn't necessarily work for another--- they're all unique. I LOVE that all of my boys have their own unique little personalities, but it sure would be nice if they could all potty train the same!  I also wouldn't mind it if they weren't so darn stubborn.  I'm half tempted to say they inherited that quality from Spencer, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit they inherited it from me too.

Below is a picture of Cohen with his Alphie in front of his star chart.  I promised him that if he filled up his chart with stars, I'd take him on a train ride... just me and him. He's got great timing, because now that Christmas is quickly approaching the Heber Creeper is offering Polar Express Train Rides with Santa...  It looks like he's gonna get lucky and get to visit the North Pole!!! I KNOW his older brothers will be upset about this one!

I don't know what Bentley was smiling about... obviously he doesn't know he's next in line for Potty Training Boot Camp!!!

If I really had my act together I would have thrown Cohen a Potty Party like this mommy blogger did. Now seriously, I don't know that I would have gone quite so overboard on all of the treats--- but she does have some great ideas.  I'm not gonna lie--- the idea of a Potty Party DID come to mind before I even read this mommy bloggers blog.  Who knows, maybe I will throw a Potty Party--- if not for Cohen, maybe for Bentley... or Atticus. 

And while I discussed Cohen's school picture, I thought I'd share some others we just received.

Below is Ian's...

Again, I apologize for the circus pic but really, how else was I supposed to share the class photo without revealing all of the other kids faces?!  Anyhow, don't you just love his cute little smug smirk in this picture.  It's not quite a smile, and it's not a frown--- I can tell he wanted to smile but he was holding back.  I LOVE that kid!

Here's Noah's Kindergarten portrait.

I can't wait till the day my hallway is lined with all of our boys school portraits!
5 more years and all 5 will be in school!

Last but not least, we can't forget Spencer.  Yep- he gets his school picture taken too.  He even has some extra wallets to give away... shout out to me if you want one and I'll hook you up!