The eldest is due to turn 8 next month and the littlest is 3. Middle child (Fifi) is 6. What this means in base terms is we’ve had a window of a few months in the last 8 years where we’ve not had to change nappies. Ned has been ready to toilet train for a while now; you can tell when he needs to do a poo because he takes himself off to a quiet corner or another room in an attempt to not be forced on to the toilet. I’d love to say it’s endearing but it isn’t it’s just bloody irritating. I don’t like scraping turd off of kids at the best of times, let alone when it’s a three year old who should know better.
We’ve had a couple of attempts to toilet train Ned before and that has lead to some amusing happenings- he’s gone and got a nappy and demanded it’s put on him in order to do a poo in it, he’s taken his nappy off because the turd he’s done has been digging into him (well, that one wasn’t so amusing) and he’s basically constipated himself until we’ve relented and put one on him.
This time though, we’re doing it on his terms and he seems up for it. On a stink scale, his toilet poos are veering towards the boys level of manky evil (he was shrieking for me the other evening, I thought he’d hurt himself but it turned out he couldn’t reach the flush handle and thought he might be sick) but it’s definitely preferable to scooping out a nappy.
Of course this is probably the worst phase in some ways because going out and about in pants means you need to be able to run to a toilet at any given moment when your three year old tells you and we’re eternally grateful to the member of staff at Forbidden Planet who let us use their toilet/stock room the other day. Having manoeuvred the buggy down the wheelchair lift, it was typically that point that Ned needed a wee-wee…
Still, overall I’m looking forward to an end of changing nappies. It’s been a long time coming.