This morning I thought I would start the day out (after breakfast of course) with giving the boys a bath. Giving baths is not one of my favorite things to do – in fact I would rank changing poopy diapers higher on my list than giving a bath – but since they had not had a bath in two days I thought I’d better give them one and not wait until Dad got home from work.

I also thought I would give them a bath together. A 24 month old and a 23 month old in the tub together at the same time. Fun. Sometimes I wonder if I just enjoy making my life difficult, when I could have put one in their crib while I gave a quick bath to the other one. But I digress.

Needless to say tubbie time was not the best time of the day here (as Ernie from Sesame Street sings). I washed their hair quickly and gave a really quick wash to both of them and started to drain the water.

When the water was drained I pulled the older one out first and gave him a quick towel dry. I still don’t trust him in the spraying department so I wanted to get a diaper on him quickly. I got his body dried off, toweled off his head, put the towel on the floor and started to reach back to get his diaper when I heard it. If you’re a mother of a boy you know the sound. The sound of your son urinating  – in this case on the rug on the bathroom floor.

And he was quite proud of himself I might add. He even started to make a game of it, starting and stopping his flow of urine. I tried not to get too mad about it – I mean he can’t control himself or anything, but I was kind of hopeful that being able to control your urine stream is a sign you are ready to start potty training.

I went to several web sites about the signs of when a toddler is ready to start potty training, and not one of them said anything about controlling the urine stream. Here are some of the signs I did find out:

Your child is dry for longer periods of time, two hours or more. Yes, sometimes he is able to keep his diaper dry, even after a nap.
He can easily pull his pants up and down. He’s trying to do so, but he can’t do it easily and he can’t do it quickly.
He recognizes he is in the process of going to the bathroom. Very rarely do I see any facial or body language indication that he is going to the bathroom. I usually only find out from the odor in the room after the fact.
He can understand and follow simple instructions. He’s a toddler, need I say more. He follows instructions when he wants to.
He shows an interest or desire in potty training, buy wanting to wear big boy underwear, indicating to you when he is wet, etc. No, not yet.

I guess I’m going to have to wait it out for a while longer, that my boys are not ready for potty training. Lucky me!