In the very beginning of potty training David, I would offer him a reward if he succeeded in any of the newly required “tasks” of being out of diapers. And my boy has a sweet tooth like his mama, so chocolate chips were a great motivator. He doesn’t care about new toys, but he does care about sweet treats.
Luke (pictured above), whom we were not potty training at this same time, is always around and wanting to be involved in whatever his big brother is doing, and he was picking up on things that I hadn’t even realized.
When it was time to use the bathroom, I would get David all set up and then ask him if he wanted any privacy. He always said he did, so I would gesture to Luke to get out of the bathroom, and we’d go wait for David to be finished. In the meantime, I would go acquire 2 chocolate chips for David’s reward if he had success!
Sometime after doing this a few times, Luke would start trailing me around the kitchen like he usually does and see the large clear canister of chocolate chips sitting on the counter. And he would say, “pry-see mama” and look at me with longing eyes.
I didn’t understand what he was trying to say and would just reply to him by saying, “Lukie, ‘privacy’ isn’t food. What are you trying to say"” and he’d just continue to say “pry-see” until he realized I was not understanding him.
This only happened in the kitchen.
And one day, the lightbu...