Adventures in Potty Training, Starring The Poo Flinging Monkey

Preface

Potty training. Ya know, I thought that getting my toddler to fall asleep the whole night was hellacious. Well, to be honest, I still think it was and I try desperately to not make the mistakes I thought I did with him with our youngest. So far it has paid off...but the opossite issue I had with Post has arisen lately. Post had no problem napping and every problem sleeping through the night. Xire has developed a problem taking naps and sleeps great through the night. This is because, this lil bug is still sick. I digress.
Potty Training.
An Idea occurred to me: Why give stickers or snacks for going potty? Why not a reminder reward?
A temporary old school tattoo.
So every time our son goes potty like a big boy, he gets a tattoo. A Potty Tattoo. He knows why he gets them and I think it can serve as a reminder to go to the potty. Plus, my son looks like a bad ass Potty Prince. Like mama and papa, covered in tattoos.

Scene

Loud Jungle noises arise from behind the door.
What is going on in there? Sounds like the same non-sense as usual: monkey business.
Hours upon hours this rambunctious behavior ensues in the trembling ears of listeners, ease-dropper, ear-gawkers, in the middle of the afternoon. Babies are held and shushed to sleep as bursts of loudness empty out of the room.
It sounds to outsiders like the primate is trying to communicate with his mother. Where is she? Probably, trying to sleep somewhere in another room...Or not at all, with all this commotion.
The mama Ape enters the scene, grumbling and tired from an afternoon of planned rest lost to the mid-day hootenanny of her child, she opens the door. An over powering smell of fecal matter fills the air. Furniture has been re-arranged, clothing and blankets strewn around the room (covered in the same brown matter as the smell), toys displaced in corner and crannies (hiding from the stench).
SQUISH!
The mama ape lifts up her foot while a look of sheer disgust wipes across her face. The little monkey leaps at the mother with glee, she has returned.
'see mama I have cleaned it up, aren't I a good little monkey?.....'

Hilarious I am sure. I quickly swept Post up, deposited him into the tub, grabbed 3 wipe-ies. Three, did i seriously think that was enough to fulfill the cleaning of this mess: walls, door, drawers, drapes, bed, floor...Covered! While Xire was screaming his head off and Post wanting desperately to escape the tub, mama successfully cleaned the room, leaving a quarter bottle of vinegar and a pile of Clorox wipes behind. One wash later, the house was seemingly at a balance, as balanced as it could be with a sleepless toddler and mama roaming around the digs.
I explained to my brother as I was cleaning up: I really shouldn't be upset, I should just be excited with anticipation that one day I won't have to change his diapers anymore. He doesn't like the feeling of his diaper being dirty, so he takes it off. Some drops on the floor, and my son happens to be a very tidy kid, so he collects what he can to clean it up. Really, in retrospect, he is being very very good.
So that was yesterday.
The day before yesterday, my brother had headed out of town to head home after a short visit. About an hour later I am heading out the house with 2 lil ones to rescue him. His engine died and went to heaven. My poor brother has been stranded here in Utah almost the whole week and practically his whole vacation time.
So
Colorado! Holy Smokes, no pun intended. My lovely home sate is up in flames. My parents have been on pre-evacuation for a number of days. The Waldo canyon fire has claimed 16.5k acres as of this morning. For up dates check geoMAC and InciWeb. On top of this my brother was 2 mi from the High Park Fire in Fort Collins, Co where he lives. So back to my folks, they decided to come out here to escape the fire and help my brother with his car situation. O, adding to this, a day or two before the were under pre-evacuation, a water main broke and flooded the basement of their house. Hows all that for bad luck.
Alright, enough of that.
loves-ies and kissies