Potty Training Update

Update is this.......my kid is super awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday evening we tried undies for a couple hours and had one accident
Saturday morning he had one accident, we put him in a diaper for nap time which he wet and pooped in, and he had 2 accidents that evening.
Sunday we had another total of 3 accidents (again diaper at nap and overnight)
Monday - NO ACCIDENTS and diaper at nap time was dry
Tuesday - NO ACCIDENTS and wore undies during nap time and went to daycare (I wanted to throw in distractions)

So tomorrow we are going to the Children's Museum in Houston to celebrate this success (more distractions).

A few have asked our approach to potty training, I am by no means an expert - or even experienced in this topic.  Just pretty lucky so far!  But there were many tips I gathered from an old book called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day - copyright 1974 - and we repeatedly watched a video I picked up for $2.99 called Potty Power (it is cheesy but it works, I have gone around with songs about being proud to wear my underwear and saying bye-bye to diapers stuck in my head for the past 4 days.  Now he loves to tell people he has POTTY POWER).  I also got inspired by my friend Nicci, who was much more aggressive in her approach and quit diapers cold turkey (I do not have the guts to go overnight yet without a diaper).

Anyway, basically we pumped him full of liquids (juice, chocolate milk, water, and occasional sips of sprite) and had him eat a lot of salty foods (Chips, crackers, pretzels, etc) to increase desire to drink.  Then we  put all our attention on him.  Initially I had him sit on his potty every 15 minutes, then have slowly increased the time intervals (30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour).  On Saturday we had gotten up to 45 minutes but Sunday morning had to go back to 30 minutes for awhile.  Every time he had successful output he was rewarded with M&Ms or Nemo Fruit Snacks and/or a sticker....and of course tons of praise from Mom and Dad.   He loved it - most of the time.  Sunday morning when I first attempted to get him to sit on the potty he said "no I am done" and refused so we ate breakfast and then took off the overnight diaper and began.  And yesterday (Monday) he looked at the potty screamed and slammed it shut, but again after eating was fine.  I guess he will stay in a diaper until after breakfast and all will be well.

He has not yet told me he has to go potty (nor has he pooped in the potty), I do not ask him if he has to go, I simply tell him it is time to go.  He is at the age where he really wants to be independent so we always work on him donning and doffing his own clothing as well as emptying the potty and washing his hands by himself (or "I do it" as Nate says).

So in case you cannot tell, I am ridiculously proud of my little man- and a little sad because he is growing up so fast.

The after-effects of one too many M&Ms!