Once Upon a Potty: Boy

We try to be an eco-concious family so the cloth diaper illustrations actually suits my daughters experience since that is what she uses now in 2008. She is 15 month and we started to read this book 2 weeks ago. She loves the book and spends time by herself flipping the pages. She also grabs the book for us to read it to her. In this this 2 weeks she is already familiar with the potty (bacinica) even though we have a totally different one. Don't under estimate your child, you'll be amaze at the connections they are making.

I bought this book for my 18 month old son. We have been introducing him to the potty and he has the book in English--every time I say, "It's time to go to the potty!" he runs to find the book and then sits and turns the pages, pointing out and naming all the parts of the little boy's body. (So it's obviously great in English too:) My son goes to a babysitter who speaks almost no English, and so I try to pick up the books he has in English, in Spanish. I couldn't find this one in any store in NYC--strange, I thought--so I just ordered it and it came promptly and he is using the potty at the babysitter's now, too!

As soon as our son became interested in the potty, we bought him several potty books, but this one is his absolute favorite. He is almost 2 years old and completely potty-trained! This book was the major turning point for him. We keep it in the bathroom with our other "bathroom books," and he still wants to read it at least once a day. The illustrations are cute and unoffensive. The author chose the terms "wee wee," "pee pee," and "poo poo," which I find annoying, so I just use our own words instead. Another word of caution is that the "potty" is actually a pot or pitcher of some kind, which may concern some parents. It hasn't been an issue for us, though. I love that the text and pictures are direct and simple. Its obvious the author is very familiar with potty training because she addresses all of the stages we went through - diapers, interest, becoming familiar with the potty, having accidents, to finally getting the poo into the pot. Its great.

My son was three and still didn't want to use the potty. He tried it from time to time but always wanted his diaper back on. Just when I thought all hope was lost I checked this video out from my local library. He loved this video and it didn't hurt that his name was Joshua too just like the little boy in the video. He watched this video three times a day for two weeks and then voila ... it just happened. I couldn't have done it without this video. It's a must for any parent and child. If only we had gotten it sooner!

I love everything about this tiny book featuring Joshua and his new potty. To begin with, the illustrations are bright and eye catching. But the very best part of the book is the cler and simple language that the author uses to tell the story. As a first-time mom, I had no idea how to speak to my son about using his little potty chair or what to say about the fluids, etc., coming out of his body. I also found myself very frustrated at the end of a long day, cleaning up an unexpected mess or changing yet another pair of training pants. However, by using the language in the book, and repeating Joshua's mother's kind words about "accidents", I was able to keep my cool and not make potty training any harder for my son. It's nice to see a potty book that shows a child having accidents occasionally but still succeeding. It's also nice to have words to explain to a small child what the new potty is and not to be scared of it. I'm actually logged on today to buy another copy for a friend! Love this book!!!