Potty Trained

Potty training has been on my mind for over a year now. I tried training William last summer before school started and I began my busy work schedule. He had exhibited those signs that everyone talks about regarding potty training readiness. He was over 2 years old too so I thought I'd read up on tactics, made a sticker chart, stocked up on juice, salty treats, candy, toys, and I even let him choose his underwear. We had many talks about his rewards and he had some success going on the potty. BUT he refused to make it a regular thing and then refused to sit on the toilet altogether. I pretty much gave up and we kept saying, "This is the last box of diapers we are buying!" but they certainly were not the last box.

Now let's fast forward to a month ago. We decided to buy a little potty instead of using that pesky child seat for the "big" toilet. By this time William abhorred that potty seat, so we knew we needed to try something different. We also bought this pterodactyl dinosaur as a final reward for potty training. It sat on our china hutch for a couple of weeks just mocking him. He wanted it so very bad.

I had planned once again to try to potty train William the moment school was out and I could give it my full attention. However, a couple of days before the last day of school Kaden told William it was time and set the seat next to my desk. I thought, why not give it a try? I still had a lot of work to do and I admit I wasn't planning on giving William my 100% attention. None of our prior tactics worked so I simply denied William the pleasure of watching dinosaur videos on my phone unless he complied with sitting on the potty. To my surprise, it worked! He had success right away and initiated sitting on the potty each time he felt the need to go. It has been about 2 weeks now and I am proud to say that my little 3-year-old is finally potty trained!! He even stays dry when we are out shopping and at church. He doesn't even mind sitting on that potty seat he disliked months ago. It was so easy this time and I didn't have to put much effort into it. We obviously have had a few accidents along the way, but they have been very few, luckily. I much rather clean up the rare mess than change a diaper.

Finally playing with his pterodactyl.

I'm a proud and happy mama and Kaden feels the same way.