Hoosier Kiss

In September, Aiden starts preschool. At each school we went to look at this spring, he would cry as we were leaving because he wanted to stay. He has such a passion for learning already and eats up anything and everything we teach him. I know he will LOVE school. He is also dying for some friends his own age. Some mornings, when we wake up, we can hear kids playing at the playground near us. Aiden will say, "Mommy, my friends! We have to go see them!" I can't wait for him to be able to foster some friendships and gain some of the social skills he is craving. I am also excited that I will have some alone time with Miss Maddie while The Bug is at school. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly sad that he is growing up so quickly and that we no longer will have our whole days together, but I think the excitement outweighs the sadness.

Anyway, one of the requirements for him to be in school is that he has to be potty-trained by the time school starts. So far, I have been trying the "wait until he tells you he's ready to go" school of thought. Well, I waited and waited and waited for him to be ready before Maddie got here, but figured I wouldn't push it too much because I didn't want to have to re-train him once Maddie arrived. The morning that I went into labor, however, seemed to be the morning he was "ready". After I realized I was in labor, his efforts were quickly squashed and the diaper was put back on him. Then we were back to waiting. I was starting to get a little nervous that he wasn't going to ever be ready to go on his own. So, I did what all good parents do, I bargained with and bribed him.

I told him that when he turned 3 that he had to stop wearing diapers except for at night, and during the day he had to wear underwear like a big boy. I also made a rewards chart for him to put stickers on every time he even tried to go to the bathroom. And lastly, I told him that every time he peed on the potty he could have a Hershey Kiss or M&M's.

After we returned from Dad and Barb's, we started. He seemed to be ok with the fact that he had to wear underwear, could care less about the chart except for the fact that he wanted the stickers, and would do about anything for the Hershey Kiss/M&M's. Too my surprise he has not had one accident, but has started to demand a Hershey Kiss every time he goes potty.

One night Grant and I went out and a friend watched the kids for us. Aiden went potty twice while we were gone. However, we forgot to tell her about the Hershey Kiss demand after he's completed the job. Unfortunately, for her, we also forgot that he can't really pronounce it that well either and it comes out kinda like "Hooshey Kiss". Poor Alyssa had no idea what he was talking about at first, but finally figured it out. When we got home, she told us she thought he was saying he wanted a "Hoosier Kiss", and just assumed it was some weird Indiana thing. Needless to say they are now called Hoosier Kisses in our house.

Since then, we have dwindled the Hoosier Kisses down to one a day if he doesn't have an accident. He hasn't missed one night! Now if I could only get him to poop in the potty, we'd be all set for preschool!

Some fun pictures from the last couple of days: