Thank heavens for best friends

Here is a picture of Dawson and his best friend Cara in the budding stages of their friendship. They were just a little over one year old. They were having a contest for who could get the dirtiest at Bear Lake, but they tied. Cara is Dawson's best friend, but maybe only by default because their older brothers are best friends. Their friendship has REALLY come in handy for me in the last few weeks because of the peer pressure I created for Dawson.

"Cara goes potty, she doesn't wear diapers!" "If you want to go to school with Cara next year you have to go potty."

That was phase 1 of the peer pressure. When he started going potty then he would ask me if it was time to go to school with Cara.

"Cara wakes up dry, she doesn't sleep in diapers anymore."

Phase 2. Check.

And Phase 3 was implemented yesterday. I started getting Dawson's things out of his crib and moving Bubba's things in. Daws FLIPPED OUT! "It's my crib! Not Henry's crib!" But then I pulled the peer pressure in. "Cara sleeps in a big bed. She doesn't sleep in a crib anymore." About 10 minutes later Dawson came to me saying, "Cara sleeps in a big boy bed? Big boys sleep in a bed?" (I think he forgets Cara is a girl sometimes)

Thank you Cara!

So the first night of all three boys in the room (I have a crib and bunk beds in there). Henry was wired. He was giggling and jumping all over. It probably took him 30 minutes to fall asleep. Isaac and Dawson both got out of bed to tell on him. Dawson got a time out at which point he begged to go to bed and we didn't hear from him again. Mission accomplished. Although I'm sure we'll have our moments with Dawson, he's pretty young to have this kind of freedom in my opinion. Not that he couldn't get out of his crib, but those bars do make it harder.

Dawson is completely done with diapers. He has slept dry both mornings since my last post. We just put him in underpants, and he wakes up to go potty if he needs to. He still asks for a cookie first thing in the morning though. "I'm dry, I want a cookie." That's the first thing I hear from him. The only problem with that is that I reward all the boys if their brother does something good. I think it encourages them to help their brothers to accomplish things. Isaac always cheered on Dawson with the potty training because he knew he would be rewarded too if Dawson went potty. Anyway, I have to come up with 3 cookies every morning and I'm hoping that doesn't become a lifelong habit.