He Upholds My Heart: Potty Training Micah during blizzards

Micah never showed any interest in potty training. We tired at 23 months right before Lucy (then Gumnut) was born. My goal was to potty train him by 2. I was so pregnant and bending over with a huge belly was no fun. We then went through 2 blizzards. We nearly ran out of nappies during the 1st blizzard, so I thought this must be it! But I was so busy trying to prepare for the blizzard and trying not to worry as this was my 1st blizzard with the most snow I have ever seen. I watched the news like crazy as they warned everyone to stay at home. They closed the malls by noon and it was the 20th of December 09, right before Christmas! I rang my father in-law who is form the mid- west and I figured he knew what to do if the power went out. He gave me some good tips like taking the food out of the fridge and putting in an esky (cooler) outside in the snow, also to rug up of course. Fortunately we did not loose power! So with all this blizzard excitement, I did not get to potty training as much as I would have liked. Micah and I also ended up praying for Daddy who ended up being stuck at work overnight as there was too much snow to safely drive home in and he could not get back to work the next day to work his shift.

So we tried to potty train again after his 2nd birthday, February, the same month Gumnut was due. Then one of my midwives told me Gumnut's head was so low I might have the baby any day. Yikes the next blizzard was due that same night. I was having a lot of brads ton hicks contractions that were sometimes like the real thing. Well the blizzard hit the next day. Praise God Jeremy could get home! I had friends praying even back in Australia! He had snow up to his waist when he walked in the door. I thought great, he is stuck at home for a few days he can help me with the potty training. But I did not prepare for Jeremy going out with the neighbours and shoveling several times a day! I was so close to having Gumnut, Jeremy was busy shoveling, and Micah was so in awe of the snow...me too there was 3ft, which fell for over 24 hours straight! That I decided to wait till well after the baby was born. I knew Micah or Jeremy and I, would not be able to focus with a new born around! Oh and fortunately I did NOT go into labour during the blizzard!! We could not have gotten out and an ambulance could not have come to us, scary! It would have been a homebirth for sure (although that would have been kinda cool as I was going to have a natural labour with a homebirthing mid-wife...but at their birth centre...but a homebirth WITHOUT the midwife would have been risky). I did learn later that a lady did go into labour during that blizzard and had to be taken to the hospital in an army truck!

Micah on our shoveled sidewalk, he loved to be next to the show but did not want to play with it. I don't blame him when it was almost as tall as him in some parts. I thought it would be funny to stick an Aussie hat on top of his beanie as he will never see snow outside our house when we move to Australia!

The snow kept falling and falling. There is our neighbour starting the long process of shoveling. This looks like a modern Narnia scene esp, with the lantern in the far left corner, just beautiful!

Here I am very pregnant with Gumnut in front of our BMW that got buried in about 2 & 1/2 feet of snow.

We finally made him potty train when he was 3. He did not really grasp the concept before 3. I finally put my foot down after going to his friend Israel's house and saw him happy and very keen to use the potty. Israel is 6 months younger than Micah. So I came home and put him in pants with no pull ups. I told him he was going to learn to use the potty like Israel and no more nappies. He was not grasping the concept in pull ups. So I took the advice from family and friends and ditched the pull-ups. My good friend Trinity did something different, she put her boys in just shorts with no undies as she said it was tricky for them to pull down undies and shorts. She also suggested I potty train him in the summer too. Well this was spring now...close enough. He had quite a few accidents of course, but he was starting to get it. I even said if he can not take the time to go pee pee he can not play with the toys as Mummy has to wash them all and they have to go in the washing machine. He did not like this at all!! So after he pee'd in his tent full of his stuffed animals which I then had to clean he decided to get serious! He potty trained soon after that. I put a potty on the 2nd level on the plastic side of a picnic blanket. We put the play yard around it so Lucy could not get to it. We went out and brought him a new Lightening McQueen potty from the Cars movie at Wal Mart. We visited Nana and she got us a 10% off with her card. We also got another 2nd hand potty and a toilet seat and put them next to toilets on the other 2 floors. Oh I then introduced an m'n'm as a treat. I did some potty charts too and put a big tick up every time he used the potty. At the end of the chart he got a prize. Like a trip to the Frying Pan park farm, or Baltimore Aqairiam. So all this seemed to work and he caught on pretty quick!