The Potty Tree

This is the Potty Tree. The Potty Tree kind of happened by accident. Let me explain.

The other night, Greg was up at the office working and Gabe and I were at home. Gabe was in the tub playing and he stopped all of the sudden and said, "Mommy ah pee pee". I asked him if he went in the water and he said, "No! Ah pee pee potty chair!" Me, shocked, "You need to go pee pee in the potty chair??" Gabe, "YEAH!"

Ok, I've fallen for this trick before. I let him out of the tub, he takes off, running around the house naked, I chase him while he laughs...

But, he did say he had to go. It was worth the wet floor and chasing if I got him out.

And then, it happened. My son peed. On the potty chair. I swear... it was like a Christmas miracle.

I have never understood how parents can get so excited when their child goes potty for the first time. Now, I get it. I really get it. It was amazing! It was like a bunny running through the meadow on a beautiful spring day. Or, like the smell of fresh cut grass. Or, like witnessing a shooting star. It was like one of the coolest feelings in the world! I was so proud of Gabe. I couldn't believe he did it. AND, he TOLD me he had to go! He could've very easily just gone in the nice, warm bath water.

So, I was ready to give him every one of his Christmas gifts. But, thankfully, I remembered that I had gotten him these ornaments at Hallmark that night. And, I remembered that I had a small tree that I loved that I didn't know what to do with. So became the Potty Tree.

Each time Gabe uses the potty chair, he gets to put an ornament on his tree. We put the Handy Manny ornament on and he started freaking out because I wouldn't let him play with it! I thought maybe the Potty Tree wasn't going to work out, but eventually he forgot about Manny and calmed down. Here's Manny:

When you look at the tree, you'll see that there's actually quite a few ornaments on it. That's because I was really excited that first night and gave him both the Nemo set and the Handy Manny set. I couldn't help it!

Last night, I thought I'd try before bedtime to see if he would go. And guess what... We got #1 & #2!! Steve & Tami were over, so he was receiving extra praise. I think #2 was an accident because he kept running into the bathroom to try and go a little more! He was all about the attention! It was hilarious. Steve wanted me to take a picture of it and call this post "Twas the Deuce before Christmas".

Um, no. Gabe, I will not put a picture of your first poo poo on the internet.