Potty Training 101

Well, we decided it was time...time for us to get a small raise...time for O to get some cool Thomas underwear...time for us to ditch the diaper bag.  We have officially completed the journey and O is diaper free!!

Several weeks before Thanksgiving, we decided it was time to tackle what we thought would be a very arduous task.  O had been expressing interest in using the potty himself from time to time, so we felt like we needed to take advantage of his interest and go for the goal.  We had tried it several times before, but he wasn't ready...he fought us and did not want to get on the potty....we didn't want to push it and it be a negative experience for him, so we waited for a time that we knew he was ready.  We told him once he got fully potty trained, we would buy him a truck or tractor of his choosing.  We found a neat potty training chart online and he proudly placed the stickers along the path until it was completed.

Since O did not realize he had to go potty until it was too late, I knew I had to be the one proactively asking.  Rather than he resenting and getting angry at me making him try to use the potty, I set a timer and every 45 minutes or so, we would go sit and try to use it.  He was very willing and got excited when the timer went off.  He was so proud of himself when he actually went in the potty.  The first two days, we had a few accidents, but much less than we expected.  By the third day, we were down to no accidents.  From then on, it was only a few accidents here and there.  After the first week, he was telling me when he needed to go potty and the timer went bye-bye.  Once the potty training chart was completed, we got him a big truck, wrapped it up, and left it on top of the potty.  We told him the potty fairy left it for him.  We were so proud of how well he caught on and how easy of a transition this ended up being.  He's really becoming such a big boy!