Last Summer, while planning our basement remodel, I joked (with only a small hint of seriousness) to Mrs. LIAYF that in the new bathroom we should install a urinal."Think of the convenience" I argued. "Slap one of those against the wall and it won't take up much room. Plus, since we could both use the bathroom down there at the same time, there would be plenty of extra time available for me to do important things around the house." Even though I was thinking it, I stopped short of adding, "Like blogging".
It didn't go over very well.
Needless to say, our basement bathroom is now complete - with only the one toilet.
You'll have to excuse me. Urinals and toilets have been on my mind a lot lately. Lukas is at the stage in his potty training where he exclusively uses them now. When there are no 'accidents' that is....and I'm proud to say that my son, who is a few months shy of his third birthday, is progressing very nicely. He actually went the whole week last week (non sleep time) with a dry set of underwear. Notice that I didn't say 'pair'. Yes, we did change him last week.
Anyway, back to the urinals. Again and again, and again. Every time we are out in public these days, sometimes Mrs. LIAYF, but more often me, are taking our son to the nearest restroom every 30 to 60 minutes to do his business - attempting to reinforce the idea that he go on a regular basis. And, since he is a 'big boy' now, he really doesn't want to sit to go pee. I can certainly relate and will always go out of my way to accommodate that desire.
But with the fact that my boy is still barely over 3' tall and won't be able to stand in front of a toilet on his own for some time still, what usually will transpire is that I'll pull down his pants and hold my son over the toilet or up to the urinal to complete the task at hand. This is usually a rather awkward procedure. This process is most often necessitated by the fact that almost no public restrooms, even the ones catering specifically to families, have step stools available. What's up with that? You know, you really don't notice these things until you have a little guy of your own.
All that being said, it turned out to be quite a treat for us the other day while visiting a local children's museum, when we rolled into the men's room and found, at the very end of a row of urinals, a small sized one that began at floor level! I found it difficult to contain my obvious excitement, though I did refrain from hooting in front of the other dad who was present.
I eagerly pointed this small sized receptacle out to Lukas, who seemed to immediately get the significance, or so said the adult sized smile that crept across his face. Not one to miss out on such a significant opportunity, I then parked myself one unit over while letting my son take care of his own business for a nice change. It was strangely a small moment of happiness for me.
Not only that, you can only imagine the time we saved.
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15 comments:
I remember those days, they were fun. Although I have to admit that there is something nice about not having to worry about whether my son can reach the toilet.
Now it is all about trying to keep him from climbing up every tree, bridge, building he can find.
When I was little, I tried to use a urinal; but I wasn't tall enough. So I peed on the floor.
For some reason, I remember the whole thing vividly.
Sharing a pee with your son. I am looking forward that, some day. Is that odd?
My son used to love urinals, until an automatic flusher went off and scared him. Now he won't go anywhere but home.
I feel your pain, I lobbied heavily for a urinal when we remodeled our house. Now that we have a son I believe more strongly that we should have done that. I'm totally making my wife read this post.
The latest thing around here is diaperless babies. You have to be really attentive. I almost got bowled over on the sidewalk by a store proprietor who bolted out of the store holding his infant son out straight and drained him in the median strip.
Try offering a bidet for the urinal. Happy all around.
Have you seen these???
http://www.amazon.com/WeeMan-Potty-Training-Urinal-Boys/dp/B001DZWPSQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1270907054&sr=1-2
or this?
http://www.amazon.com/Visionaire-1100-Peter-Toddler-Urinal/dp/B000C22J2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1270907084&sr=1-1
My mother is a kindergarten teacher and she told me to make sure that Jacob knows how to use a urinal before school. She has a lot of boys that don't know and a male teacher has to go in and try and teach them.
Go with a trough...or a mid sized plant.
I have a friend who just let her kids stand on top of the potty.
I was watching a show called The Marriage Ref last night and one of the couples was debating the fact that the husband wanted to install a urinal in one of the bathrooms.
He lost. :)
This reminded me of the time my sister took our niece into a public washroom where the stall wall had been removed, and my niece exclaimed, "Now we can hold hands while we poo!"
Yay.
Oddly every half decent public bathroom here will have a lower down urinal at the end.
Being not so tall myself I've often been tempted.
Yea urinal discussion.
Congrats to your son and his expert bathroom learning. We have one younger one that is doing great with potty training and the other who needs alot more work.
To my shame, the seats on both our home toilets are maladjusted (or did I just buy cheap seats!) such that my son has to sit. He's probably tall enough to stand now too... just! So I must try to fix that.
That's something that's puzzled me too. Why don't these places make the sinks easier to reach with a step up or something? And even the little urinals are usually too tall for kids under 5. Glad to hear you found one to your liking :-)
i flat-out loved that. and can totally relate. our little guys just turned 2-1/2 and we're at the same point. though they're so small that standing while peeing hasn't occurred to them yet.
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