Author's Note: I seem to be suffering from a bit of Writer's Block, my apologies if this story sounds a bit jumbled, but hope it turns out okay. Also, while I was going to wait and release this one until after my nephew in real life got potty trained, without giving too much away, I'm not sure if I'm going to be around for much of that, thus, rather get this story over with while I have the time to write it, and somewhat of an idea of how I want the story to go. Also, while on my profile, the summary states that my OC Zack is 18-months-old, that was an error. He's actually 21-months-old during the events of this story, which I should let you know, takes place during the events of my Rugrats and Bobby's World crossover story, 'The Camping Trip,' but anyway, thought I'd make that correction here. With that out of the way, let's get started!
The Potty Training Experience
Summary: Zack believe he's clearly ready to be potty trained at twenty-one-months-old, but he'll soon learn, it's not as easy as he thinks. Story is told from Zack's POV, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize, like Zack and his aunty Celeste, while Jesse is owned by JJJB, and Peter is owned by TCKing12.
Zack POV
I can describe potty training in just one word, hard. However, that's not much of a story. Yeah, I'm sure you'd rather hear the real thing, and so, here it goes. Okay, firstest of all, you otta know, I'm only twenty-one-months-old at the time of this story. Yes that's right, I kid you not, not only am I the youngest baby in all of the world to learn how to read, and who knew his alphabet and most of his numbers by eighteen-months-old, or, put it this way. Unlike mostest of my friends, I could count in order, while their counting is completely random, but I was about to make another breakthrough in baby history. That's right, the youngest baby to leave his diapers forever, and move to the potty. However, this wasn't going to be as easy as I had hoped, but luckily, I had several friends who either went through it post my meeting them, or beforehand, so chances are, they could help me.
Before I tell you the story of how I became the youngest baby to use a potty, you might be thinking, am I crazy? The answer, is no. Sure, most babies would be devastated on that day their diapers would be disappearing forever, but for me, I was just the opposite. Being one of the more intelegent of the babies, I guess you could say I was also one of the more sophisticated ones too. That means, being very growed up for my age. I couldn't stand diapers. Why? Because I always needed a growed up to help me. Sure, it meant being able to pee and poop wherever I was at the time, but once the diaper filled up, I'd have to seek a growed up's help in getting it changed. Using a potty would mean having to pay more tentions to my body, so I wouldn't have a accident, but it would mean no more help from the growed ups. As long as there was a potty nearby, and so far, I didn't know of any place where potties didn't exist, I'd be all set. Now came the tricky part, the transition.
Usually, in times like this, I'd approach my pal Tommy for advice. He always had good ideas, not to mention, he would encourage us, giving us that positive edge to go forward with our plans. Unfortunately, he was away on a camping ttrip with his grandpa Lou, our good friend, Bobby Generic, and Bobby's uncle Ted, which sadly meant, he wouldn't be around for advice. I was there when he got potty trained though. It happened roughly six months ago at this time, when it was still cold outside and not too long after Christmas and our freak New Years when one of Peter's inventions switched Tommy and Chuckie's brains around for a day. The thing I remember the most about Tommy when he got potty trained, was it was obvious he took wearing diapers for granted. Not only as a place to hold his screwdriver, but as their original purpose as well. Let's just say, to make a long story short, he took it so for granted, that if we were on an aventure, during that first week, our fun was often abrupted by the not so ocasional accident, leaving the embarrassed purple haired two-year-old in tears, not to mention, going through more clothes in one week than I could recall going through in a lifetime, even as a baby-baby. Though don't quote me on that, as I'll admit, life as a baby-baby for me was somewhat fuzzy by this time of my life, even if I was slightly younger than the bulk of my friends, well, except for Tommy's younger brother Dil, who was younger than me, but only by a month or two, or three. I forget now. And obviously, Dil hadn't begun the process of leaving his diapers yet, or as he still called them, diapies, so while he didn't go on the camping trip, he would be no help in this situation.
My choices for help were Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Kimi. I decided I'd start with Chuckie firstest, for one, he was already potty trained when I met him, after all, that's to be expected when you meet them on their third birthday, or, you certainly hope so. Secondly, he was the oldest of my friends who I was seeing at the time. Well, technically, Bobby and Susie were closer to being the oldest of my friends who I saw most of the time, but again, Bobby was away on a camping ttrip, and Susie, I didn't see her enough to know if she'd be around to give advice. And sorry, but I despise Angelica with a passion. I'd rather wear diapers forever than ask her to help me get potty trained, if you know what I mean. And while I could probably ask Peter about his potty training experience, he was so much older than us, did he by chance, have any memories of that type of thing? Of course, he had the resources to use his time machine to go back in time and relive such a thing, but who would want to do that? So I settled for Chuckie as my first person to help me. Lucky for me, I'd be spending the afternoon with him and Kimi, so when my aunty dropped me off at their house to play that day, I asked my burning question.
"Hey Chuckie?" I asked.
"Yeah." He replied.
"I've gots a question for you." I said.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I know this might feel awkward, but what was it like getting potty trained? And what do you recommend I do to help me get potty trained?" I asked.
An unpleasant look crossed my friend's face. I only hoped I didn't make him feel uncomfortable or anything, but I'd take it like a big baby, whatever was coming. He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh before replying, which already toldid me he wasn't wild about the experience.
"Well, I didn't exactly like leaving my diapers. Plus, it takes a while to learn when you need to go, and when you don't need to go. I did a lot of sitting on the potty…" Chuckie explained, before I cut him off.
"Thanks Chuckie, you can stop right there. That's all I needed to know." I said.
My redheaded friend just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. No matter, luckily, a little clown training potty was still in Chuckie and Kimi's bathroom, so I made my firstest move towards using the potty. I tooked off my diaper, sat down on the potty, and waited there for an eternity, hoping something would happen. While I didn't know how to tell time, I did know this much. If both hands went all around the clock once, it meant an hour had gone by. I'm pretty sure they did in the time I sat there, and within that time, nothing happened. Then, I overheard Kimi crying from another room. Startled, not to mention, worried if she was okay, I nearly got up, when I suddenly felt something. It was the feeling I had to go to the bathroom.
Well I went all right, and in the potty. However, there was still one little problem. The little potty didn't have a flusher on it, while the big potty did. Therefore, I had to get my pee pee from the little potty, into the big potty, and press the flusher. When I was done, I carefully picked up the little potty, careful not to spill the contents out on to the floor. I got it over to the big potty, which luckily, was still open from when Chuckie last used it, as he was using the big potty, while Kimi still used the little one, slowly transitioning to the big potty, more or less, only using one when her little potty wasn't available. Unfortunately, I missed, pouring my pee pee out on to the floor. If that wasn't enough, I only made things worser, by slipping on it and hitting my head hard on the tile bathroom floor.
"Ow!" I cried, bursting into tears.
"What happened Zachary?" I heard Kimi ask from the doorway into the bathroom.
Not only was I hurt, but I was embarrassed, crying in front of a girl, and my bestest friend of all peoples.
"Trying to get myself potty trained, and I had a accident." I managed to say between clinched baby teeth, my head still throbbing in pain, as I tried to stand up, only to slip on the wet floor a second time.
"Ow!" I cried again, this time, getting Chuckie and his mommy's tentions.
"Oh dear! Looks like we had an accident in here. Come on Zack sweetie, let's get you all cleaned up." Kira said, picking me up and carrying me into Chuckie and Kimi's room to change me into the extra pair of clothes my aunty left me with that day.
So far, this wasn't going well, and sitting there with nothing to do wasn't helping. I also figured that until I had a bit more coordination, I'd still need a growed up's help at emptying my little potty into the big potty, and the whole point of leaving the diaper world, was to be more independent, because that's, just, how I am.
"I guess you're just not ready to get potty trained yet. I mean, you're not even two yet. I was at least two when I did that." Chuckie said.
At least Kimi intervened before I could say anything, as I was so angry at that point, I wanted to throw a block at his head.
"Don't say that. Zachary, you can do it if you keep trying." Kimi said.
I looked at her upon climbing down from Chuckie's bed with new clothes on, a small smile on my face, but I knew it wouldn't be easy. I especially had a difficult time sitting there forever without growing bored. Though because I didn't need to go right then, I decided to put the whole ordeal out of my mind, and go play with Chuckie and Kimi for the rest of the afternoon. We played Racing Reptar in the backyard for a while, and their mommy and daddy made us ravioli for supper. They also toldid us we'd be going to the grape festival the nextest day and getting our picture taken with Reptar, to which we were very excited about. However, I guess while we were outside playing, one of their parents spoke with my aunty, and their mommy figured out I was interested in using the potty, because when my aunty picked me up after supper, she had gone and gotten me a potty.
"Are you sure he's ready for this? I mean, he's not even two." I heard my aunty say when she came to get me.
I snuck over to the frunt door where she and Chuckie and Kimi's mommy were talking.
"Well Celeste, Zack has always been quicker to start doing things. I do believe getting him a training potty was a good move. I don't know what it was like for Chuckie, as he was already potty trained when I married Chas, but I potty trained Kimi, and according to the Lipchitz book that Didi let me borrow, they said to let the child sit on the potty until they went. Praise them so that they get the right idea, and eventually, they'll get it and start using the potty." Kira said.
"Well I picked up a potty for him on my way to pick him up. We'll give it a try and see what happens." Celeste said, as I toddled over to her.
"I think he's ready to go." Kira said, picking me up and handing me over to my aunt.
"Hi Zack, did you have a nice day?" Celeste asked me.
I smiled and gave her a hug. I would have nodded, but that don't work so well for her, since she can't see me nod. Once we had all of my stuff, she put me into her driverless car, and we headed for home, where I decided I'd better give it one more try before heading off to bed. However, I wasn't going to go sit on the potty again, without something to keep me entertained. One time while spending the night at Tommy and Dil's house, I caught a glimpse of their daddy on the big potty. He was reading a newspaper, which gave me an excellent idea. I went into the living room, where I drug Encyclopedia, Volume Z off of the shelf. No, it had nothing to do with the firstest letter of my first name. It had more to do with it being the last volume, thus, being on the bottom shelf, allowing me to reach it by myself, plus, it was a slightly lighter version from some of the others, since there aren't as many things in the world that start with Z, and to a baby like myself, carrying an Encyclopedia volume, is like carrying bricks to a growed up. It's heavy!
No matter, I got it moved down the hall to the bathroom, where luckily, my aunty had put the little potty. And so, another venture of waiting began. This time though, it wasn't nearly as boring, thanks to having the Encyclopedia to keep me entertained. And unlike most of my friends, who could only look at the pictures, I could actually read most of the words. I was reading about the history of zoos, when it hit me. I had to go really badly. But once again, I was startled, standing up rather than sitting still. Big mistake peoples, big mistake indeed. Yeah, maybe peeing on the floor was bad, but this time, I not only peed all over the pages of the book I was reading, which I dropped to the floor upon standing up, I pooped on the floor too. My aunty heard all of the commotion, and rushed into the bathroom to see what was going on.
"Oh Zachary." She said, upon finding the mess.
I just sank to the floor in tears. She got the mess cleaned up and changed me into a diaper and my Reptar footsy pajamas.
"Now now, don't cry sweetie. You're still a bit young. You'll get there someday." My aunty said, while getting me ready for bed.
But I kept on crying. Someday wasn't enough for me. We'd be going to Washington DC in a few weeks to see Taffy off on some big tour, if nothing else, I didn't wish to be in diapers by the time we went on that trip. Surely, I'd expect Dil to still be in diapers. Heck, he didn't even start walking until after his first birthday. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start using the potty till he was three and in preschool. Though I'll never say that out loud in front of Tommy or Dil. If there's one thing I've learndid in the time I've known Tommy and Chuckie, as big brothers, they're not only highly overprotective of their younger siblings, but they don't appreciate their younger siblings being talked down upon.
Seems I cried myself to sleep that night, feeling like a failure. Luckily, the next day, we'd be going to the grape festival, where there'd be lots of activities to do, and, we'd get our picture taken with Reptar. My aunty and I would be riding with Phil and Lil's family to the festival, as everybody felt the fewer cars we took, the less parking spaces we'd take up, since this was a very popular thing for peoples to go to, making it very crowded. It then hit me, not only did I see Tommy go through potty training, who had to just, well, his solution to his problem was, use the potty before going on any aventures, and that caused the constant accidents to stop. As for Phil and Lil though, another pair who I saw some of their potty training, though much of it took place in early spring, when I spent most of my time, entertaining poor Tommy, who was healing from a broken leg in a cast, all I really remember from when they were being potty trained, was Lil being very grumpy over losing her diapers, while Phil was down right depressed over losing them, and couldn't stand even looking at me, seeing I wore nothing but a t-shirt and my diaper in plain sight. But maybe, just maybe, now that they had gotten over what I like to call, Diaper Separation Anxiety, and they were close to using the regular potty by now, perhaps I could ask them for advice.
Once we were in the car, I spoke up.
"Phil, Lil, I wanna ask you about something. What was your secret to getting potty trained? In particular, did you find a way to decrease the amount of time you had to sit on the potty forever?" I asked.
The twins exchanged glances.
"Are you sure you're ready for potty training?" Lil asked.
"Yeah, you're younger than us." Phil added.
"You guys, never mind that. I know I'm younger than you guys, but I don't care. I'm determined to be the youngest baby to ever use a potty, so, how did you do it?" I asked again, more determined to get an answer than ever.
"Well, for me and Phillip, if we ate lots of mud, wormies, and crayons, we founded we needed to go potty more often." Lil said.
I just gave her a dirty look. Maybe eating gross disgusting stuff like that worked for them, but not for me.
"Uh, g, thanks…" I replied.
"And have your aunty get you clothes with lots of pockets. Trust me, you'll need them." Phil said.
"Oh, I take it undies don't got places to store things like diapies?" I asked.
"Nope." Phil and Lil replied in unison.
"Oh, and once you're potty trained, only call diapers, diapies when you're around Dil." Phil said.
"So wait a minute. Are you saying, potty trained toddlers, can't call diapies, diapies?" I asked.
"That's right." Lil said.
"In fact, for the longest time, when it was just me, Lil, Tommy and Chuckie, cuz you know, we were all, more or less, baby-babies together at the same time, we all already called diapies, diapers, and spoke like growed ups do." Phil explained.
"Till Dil was about to be borndid. That's when Tommy toned down his language, he toldid us to hang on to our diapies during one of our Okey Dokey Jones aventures right before Dil was born, and it toldid us, we had to talk like little bitty babies again, so his little sister at the time, who turndid out to be his baby brother Dil, could understand us." Lil added.
"Ah, got ya, but now that Dil isn't a baby-baby no more, he's a year old and a big baby now, and we're all nearly potty trained, well, once I finish the job, all except for Dil, we've gotta start talking more like growed ups now." I said.
Phil and Lil nodded, making me glad I picked up real quickly on the whole concept. Gosh, I never realized potty training meant so many things. I thought it was only the first step to becoming a growed up, but that would explain back when I metted the gang, why Chuckie was already saying diapers, while everybody else said diapies. He was potty trained, not to mention, three-years-old when I met him, I wouldn't be surprised if peoples over three who said diapies would go to jail for such an offense. Angelica would probably tell me I was right, but I'd just, keep my mouth shut, I'd rather not know.
Anyway, before we knew it, we were at the festival. We had a lot of fun there, getting our pictures taken, playing with these pretend grape leaves made out of wood, that you could put into these pretend wholes like you were growing grapes, and there were letters on poster cards, which I showed to everybody, and spelled my name. While I was proud to do these things, I didn't like being in my diapers no more, but then I remembered what Phil and Lil toldid me. Eating lots of food would help me to go more often, and maybe, I wouldn't have to wait as long.
I thought I'd get my chance to eat lots of food at the festival, but sadly, they were already out of grapes, and most of the goodies made with grapes for the festival when we gotted there, causing us to turn around and head home early. Good thing too, as Bobby and Tommy were back from their camping trip. Unfortunately, I learndid it wasn't the most wonderful trip they had. Bobby had gotted spraid by a skunk, and poor Tommy gotted poisons, which involved him having little red bumps all over his skin that itched, and an upset tummy, making him go to the potty a lot. I knew he wouldn't be much help right now, so I decided I'd leave him alone, and follow Phil and Lil's advice.
That night at dinner, I ate so much food, consisting of hotdogs, yogurt, frozen blueberries, and a yellow Reptar popcickle, that surely, I'd have to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, I pulled a Tommy in his days of potty training, except, I still had a diaper on. That's right, I went in my diaper before I made it to the potty.
"Well that was a wasted trip to the potty." I thought, leaving the bathroom, feeling ashamed.
My aunty changed me and got me ready for bed, and for the next week or so, I kept trying. She also noticed I must have been trying, because she picked me up some shorts to wear with my shirt. I do remember Tommy starting to wear a pair of dark blue shorts with his light blue t-shirt not long after we metted, even though he didn't get potty trained for several more months, it did help him transfer over to no longer wearing diapers, and storing things in his shorts pockets instead. Lucky for me, my red shorts came with pockets, so I started doing the same. My fold up telescope, my flashlight, and any other items I use to carry in my diaper, went in the shorts instead. My aunty even got me something called training pants. They felt a lot like diapers, but they had pictures of Reptar on them, and she told me that they weren't quite like diapers. I'm guessing if I had a accident in these, I'd better get out of them quicker, as they'd leak or something. I also recall mentioning them to Chuckie, to which he told me how he wore some when he went through a phase of wetting the bed before he went to Paris, after Dil was born. Learning about this only made me a little bit nervous, and it showed, as Kimi spoke up at that point.
"Come on Zachary, you know you can do it. Member helping me?" Kimi asked.
We were playing in the sandbox at the time, when the realization hit me. I did help Kimi learn how to use the potty. She was having so much trouble, she was in tears. I went into the bathroom to cheer her up by telling her a joke.
"Why did Reptar cross the road?" I asked.
"I don't know, why?" Kimi asked, trying to make poop into the little potty, without much success.
"To stop the aliums, on the other side!" I replied.
This gotted Kimi to laugh so hard while still sitting on the potty, that she made a pee pee, and it went in the potty.
"Zachary! I did it!" Kimi exclaimed, getting up and giving me a hug.
"Did what?" I asked.
Peering over her shoulder, I saw into the potty and saw what she had done.
"You did it Kimi, you did it!" I said, smiling and continuing to hug her.
"Thanks to you." Kimi said, blushing.
I smiled back, thankful that my getting her to laugh, got her to go potty.
"Wow, I had forgotted all about that." I said.
"Yeah, getting me to laugh, got me to go potty where I was spose to, and I've gone there, ever since." Kimi said, digging her shovel into the sandbox to make another whole.
"And member what gotted me to go?" Jesse asked.
How could I forget? It took both, me and Tommy to help him learn how to use the potty, and this wasn't long after we met. Not only was he sitting there forever, but between putting on a sock puppet show for him, and jumping up and down in the bouncy castle at Tommy's second birthday party, he moved around enough, that he had to go.
"Hey! Maybe if I jump around enough, and laugh a lot, I'll member to go and go potty where I'm spose to too!" I said, leaping out of the sandbox, ready to try anything.
And with Kimi and Jesse's help, who were over at the park, playing with me on this particular day, we put our plan into action. We were at the park, so this meant I'd have to use the big potty in the little outdoor bathroom shed place, but I didn't care. As long as I went in a potty, not my training pants, that's all I cared.
First, we jumped up and down on the trampeleen. Then, we climbed on the monkey bars. Later, we went on the swings, slid down the slide, and all of this time, Kimi and Jesse were coming up with jokes to make me laugh.
"What's a cow's favorite car?" Jesse asked.
"I don't know, what?" I asked.
"A moo ving van." Jesse replied.
I was at the top of the monkey bars when he told me that joke, making me laugh so hard, I nearly stopped dead, as I looked quickly around for a safe way to the ground.
"What's wrong?" Tommy called from below, who had showed up at the park at this point.
"Uh… I've gotta go." I said.
"Go where?" Dil asked, who was standing next to Tommy, wearing his green and yellow striped t-shirt and his diaper in plain sight.
He now wore the same size diapers Tommy wore at one point, but seeing that diaper on Dil didn't make me regress. No way jose. It only made me want to get to that bathroom quickly. Maybe he was okay with being in diapers for a bit longer, after he, he was only fifteen or sixteen months at this point, but not me. I was determined to make it to the tiny bathroom at the park, before I played with Tommy and Dil in what seemed like forever, or at least, in forever since Tommy was himself, as it took a bit of coaxing from me to convince Tommy that the poisons he gotted on that camping trip weren't gonna make him disappear forever, but right then, I had more aportant business to attend to, and that, I did.
I ran faster than I had ever runned in my entire life, never answering Dil's question, as I couldn't let my friends down. On my way to the potty, I had also seen that Phil and Lil had arrived, and Chuckie had returned from clothes shopping with his daddy, as he needed new clothes. However, telling everybody hi would have to wait. Luckily, the bathroom was unoccupied. I went inside, pulled down my shorts and training pants, climbed up on the potty, which took a little bit of effort, as I was still kind of short, but I didn't care. I got up there, and, right in the nick of time, I did it. I went in the potty successfully, flushed the potty, and ran outside where all of my friends cheered me on.
"I did it you guys, I did it! I am by far, the youngest baby to ever use a potty." I said.
"You sure are." Tommy said, giving me a hug.
"So, what do you wanna do now Zack?" Chuckie asked me.
"Uh… Anybody wanna play Okey Dokey Jones?" I asked.
"Sure!" Tommy said.
I was glad Tommy felt better, and I was so proud of myself, I couldn't stop thinking about my accomplishment for the rest of the day, as our friend, Bobby Generic joined us in our Okey Dokey Jones aventure.
And yes peoples, I will say it again, potty training in a word is, hard. However, when you listen to the advice of your friends and keep trying, whether you're big or small, if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.
Now all that's left is getting Dil to use the potty, but I'll let Tommy and Dil handle that one, and only help, if they ask me to help.
End of Zack POV
The End
Author's Note: Well, there you have it. My one-shot on how my OC Zack got potty trained. I also made reference to 'The Rugrats Movie,' as well as my Rugrats and Bobby's World crossover story, 'The Broken Bone Experience,' and my story, 'The Switch, a Rugrats New Years Story,' as well as a tiny reference to 'Chuckie Vs. the Potty,' and 'Accidents Happen,' and Phil and Lil's explanation of how they and the other babies talked in earlier seasons of Rugrats versus how they talked in later seasons after Dil was born, really explains a lot, for sure! And oh yes, the first line of this story is a parody to a quote on Monday's new episode of Nickelodeon's newest Nicktoon, 'The Loud House.' Zack's line, "I can explain potty training in one word, hard." It parodies Lincoln's line from 'The Loud House,' episode, 'Project Loud House,' where Lincoln says the line, "I can describe my family in one word, chaos." Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it, and, be looking for more stories, coming soon!