Regression

Anyone who's potty trained a child has heard that life stressers such as moving, trauma, birth of a sibling, or even just a large change in routine can lead to regression. I was thrilled when we successfully potty trained Lucas and thought that we were in the clear. I honestly didn't expect him to partially regress backwards, but he has.

Between a mixture of trying to assert his independence and struggling between rather he wants to be a baby or a big kid, we have been dealing with a fair share of accidents these past few weeks.

It all began when my mother and younger brother were up visiting. I was shocked to see that Lucas has pee'd his pants one day and that he completely failed to tell me. This never happens. I brushed it off and assumed that he got caught up in his play and was just far too preoccupied interacting with Cameron. But then it happened again. And again. And again. He would get extremely frustrated when questioned about it and couldn't give me an explanation as to what was going on. After a while he did smart back with a comment: "but the baby pee's in his pants." This is when I knew there was a tinge of jealousy going on. I then made it more of a point to ask/remind him to use the potty, but he made it clear that he didn't want me to talk about it...at all.

After a week or so of these occasional accidents, he would go in as if he were using the potty, but come out with soaked pants. I would ask why he peed in his pants and he would yell back with "but I did go potty" right before he stormed off. This happened repeatedly for a few times and I didn't understand what was going on. Was he just running to the bathroom to have an accident? Could he not unbutton his pants? Or maybe he just failed to get them pulled down in time? I had no idea.

But then I figured it out. He had decided that he no longer wanted to use his step stool anymore, but rather stand up on his tippy toes while trying to aim. Obviously this wasn't working. I told him that he has to stand on the stool every time he goes but he yelled back "but I'm tall like Cameron!" And yes, every response was in fact a yell because that is how he has been talking to me lately. Frustrating, I know.

So here I am, feeling horrible. He obviously is struggling a great deal with finding his place. He spent one week mimicking the baby and the next trying to be 'big' like his uncle Cam. The whole ordeal has been stressful for us all and created far more laundry than I have time to do. I know this is completely normal so I am treading lightly around the entire subject and reminding myself to be patient. My constant questions and reminders and very unappreciated by Lucas, but they work. The majority of the time he uses the restroom without problems, and he never has #2 accidents, but I guess he just needs that extra bit of attention. Everybody needs a little extra lovin' now and again...especially when you're 2.5 and your home has been invaded by a little person that demands your mommy and daddy's attention quite often. I totally get it.

Here's to hoping things go back to normal soon.